


Wind Rose

by Anonymous



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Animal Crossing References, Body Horror, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, bad science practices, high suspension of disbelief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24576256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Jongin buys a holiday vacation to a deserted island, hoping to find some peace and direction.In the water, he finds Chanyeol.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol, brief baekchen - Relationship
Comments: 15
Kudos: 49
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fishing, fruit-picking and building a new life on an island comes at a cost. Sometimes it’s 49800 bells. Sometimes it’s a little more than that.
> 
> \- - - - -
> 
> please! keep paying attention to the world we live in.  
> [carrd](https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive never accidentally written a 20k fic before. you truly do not have to read this... if i had known this fic was going to turn out longer than 3k i would not have started writing it, im sorry.

Jongin folds the flap of the envelope, tucking it into his jacket pocket. He’s read the letter so many times that the words are seared into his head, but looking at it once more through Kyungsoo’s eyes made it feel like he was reading it for the first time all over again.

Kyungsoo lifts his hand to cup Jongin’s cheek, trying to read something in his face. He shakes his head. “I don’t understand. This is… a deserted island getaway? You’ll be so lonely.”

Jongin had thought about it for a long time, waiting until the last minute before letting Kyungsoo know. Kyungsoo, the one reason Jongin had made it in the city for as long as he had.

“It just doesn't feel right here anymore,” He says, finally daring to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes. “I know, as my friend, that isn’t what you want to hear. But I think I need this, for a little while. It’s only for a couple of months.”

“But you’ve quit your job. Ended your lease.” Kyungsoo tries to understand, but he can’t. Kyungsoo loves his job. Jongin’s job had felt like security until it started feeling like a noose.

“Yeah,” Jongin says. He’s only signed up for the ‘paradise island’ retreat for eight weeks, uncertain if he could afford more. But he’s not sure if he’ll return, after it all. He supposes he has eight weeks of fishing and staring at the stars to think about it.

“I didn’t realize it had gotten that bad. I’m sorry, Jongin,” Kyungsoo says softly, rubbing his thumb against the back of Jongin’s neck.

“It’s not your fault,” Jongin says. “I’ll send you a postcard once I get my address.”

Kyungsoo looks like he’s holding his tongue. Jongin’s thankful for it— he wants to leave with good blessings, wants to know that he’s doing the right thing. He had come across the website a few months ago, and something inside him had clicked instantly, telling him that it was the solution to all the sleepless nights spent curled up in bed and listening to his favourite sad songs on loop.

“Okay,” Kyungsoo says, finally. He lets go of Jongin, and gets to his feet. “Let me stay over tonight? We can watch some movies together and I’ll make sure you’ve packed enough socks. Spend a little more time with me before I have to let you go, alright?”

The weight falls off Jongin’s chest completely. Suddenly, it’s like he can breathe again.

He returns Kyungsoo’s smile, and leads them back to his apartment for one last night before his new life begins.

☵

The flight has three other passengers on it. Jongin doesn’t know what he was expecting, it’s a deserted-island getaway, after all, but the crew on board is quick to assure him that they’ll all be dropped off at separate locations. There are enough tiny islands to go around, and the only people Jongin will be sharing his island with are the preexisting villagers that already live there.

Jongin eyes the boy in the seat across from him, fast asleep, clutching his backpack and a clear folder to his chest, looking like a kid going off to college for the first time. Jongin wonders what his story is; he looks a little too young to be as jaded as Jongin feels.

He can see the kid’s details on the paper through the clear plastic file too, but Jongin averts his eyes before he’s tempted to read it. He knows what the questions are, he’d filled in an identical document over a month ago, when he’d first applied on the website with nothing more than a wishful thought.

There were simple details and some odder ones, like his height, weight and health complications. He had to pick his eye color and even his hairstyle— and he’d gotten his first professional full-body photograph taken, and attached it as requested. Jongin supposes that being so far out on the island, they had to be sure everyone was healthy because they were too far from care if needed.

Fortunately, Jongin’s always been healthy enough, attending dance lessons and workshops through college. He must pass the test, for a few days later he’d received the confirmation email telling him that he was invited to spend time on the island.

The video presentation on the screen in front of him loops again, and Jongin watches the soothing waves lap against the shore. Eventually, he falls asleep dreaming about fishing and bugs the size of his face.

When he opens his eyes next, he’s being shaken awake by the captain and is the only person left. They must have dropped everyone else off, and Jongin slept through all of it. He hurriedly wheels his suitcase out the plane, thanking the captain and lone crew member for the safe flight. The plane bobs gently as he walks, and it’s not until bright sunlight hits him in the face that Jongin realizes they’ve made a water landing.

There’s someone waiting for him at the end of the dock, and Jongin has to stop to catch his breath at the sight of the island before him. He can’t believe it’s real. He can already see the deck chairs laid out on the beach, endless naps in his future. The person is watching him carefully as he approaches, and Jongin tries to reign in the smile tugging at his cheeks.

It’s a young man, barely a few years older than Jongin, if at all. He’s wearing a floral button-up, khaki shorts and clunky slippers, and his skin is red, like he’s been waiting too long in the sun. But when he reaches out to shake Jongin’s hand, his palm is cool to touch.

“My name is Junmyeon,” He says, smiling at Jongin. The sunglasses perched atop his head slip a little, and he fixes it without missing a beat. “I’m in charge of the island, and I’ll be here to give you a quick tour and show you your home.”

He waves at something behind Jongin, and Jongin turns in time to see the plane take off, wind whipping at his hair until it’s a messy nest on his head.

He follows Junmyeon’s lead, struggling with the wheels of his suitcase awkwardly in the grass. Jongin thinks he feels someone watching him, but instead he sees a bright yellow butterfly flutter past overhead, larger than it has any right to be.

As far as Jongin turns his head, there are only trees, fruit, and more bugs. There’s a curving stream that disappears behind the pair of cabins that Junmyeon is leading him to, and reappears on the other side only to dissolve into ocean shortly afterwards. Jongin thinks he catches sight of the shadow of a very tempting fish.

“Sorry,” Junmyeon says. “The other villagers seem to have run off. I’ll remind them to come out later to greet you. There are six of us here, and now that you’ve joined us, seven. It might sound like a big number, but most of them are used to visitors, and they’ll give you all the privacy or company that you’re looking for.”

Someone peeks out from behind a far-off tree, and gives Jongin a tiny wave. Junmyeon doesn’t see them, coming to a stop in front of the cabin and digging through his pockets for the keys. Feeling a smile creep onto his face, Jongin returns the shy wave.

“Let me be the first to congratulate you on your wise decision to sign up for this adventure,” Junmyeon says, proudly straightening with the key. “We’re glad to have you here with us, Jongin.”

He unlocks the door of the wooden cabin, and holds it open so Jongin can enter. The interior of the cabin is small and quaint, with a wooden bed pushed up against the wall, a simple desk on the other side, a chevron-print rug and a standing lamp.

“We kept it unfurnished so you can decorate the way you want to. Jongdae works at the shop and will be happy to help you with any furniture or renovations that you need in the future. But in the meantime, I hope it’ll be comfortable enough for you as you get settled in.”

“It looks great,” Jongin says, honestly. He doesn’t think he’ll be spending a lot of time indoors, anyway.

Junmyeon beams. He holds out his hand, and drops the key into Jongin’s palm. “Feel free to take a couple of hours to unpack, if you wish, and meet me at the main square after sundown. Dinner will be provided, and I’ll introduce you to the others then.”

“Can I walk around?” Jongin asks. He’d much rather spend time looking around outside than at the sad contents of his bag, most of which had been folded neatly and reorganized by Kyungsoo the night before.

 _Oh, Kyungsoo!_ Jongin takes his phone out of his pocket, typing out a quick text to tell Kyungsoo he arrived safely. A sad beep tells him that there’s no reception in the cabin, and Jongin looks over at Junmyeon expectantly.

“We have poor signal in some places of the island, but the square has passable connectivity. You’ll be able to send messages there. We also have a great postal service if you’d rather do things the old-fashioned way.”

Jongin laughs, remembering his promise to send Kyungsoo a postcard. He’ll get to do it sooner than he thinks, then.

After checking that Jongin isn’t tired and truly wants to explore the island instead of unpacking, Junmyeon walks him over to the main square, where he points out the his office, beside the lone store in the island, and shoos away a beetle from a bulletin board.

“You can read news and leave notes here, sometimes there’ll be party invitations or—” Junmyeon stops talking and rips a colorful drawing off the board with one hand before Jongin can see what it is. “Uh, sorry about that. Pretend you didn’t read anything. The kids have a weird sense of humor.”

“Kids?” Jongin asks.

The store door slams open and a curly head of hair peeks over the side of the door. “Did you like our welcome note? I opened a new box of crayons to draw it.”

Junmyeon glowers. “Kid number two— Kim Jongdae.”

“Hey!” Jongdae protests, the door creaking precariously as he hangs onto it. “What do you mean kid number two?”

The window of the store slides open, and someone else leans through the open hatch. He’s wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, but removes them to smile at Jongin.

“Because I’m obviously kid number one,” He says smugly.

“And that’s Sehun,” Junmyeon says. “Don’t let them get to you, Jongin. If they upset you, put a spider in their bed. Sehun in particular is terrified of insects.”

“Ugh,” Sehun says, and shuts the window with a disgruntled noise. The pink plaid curtain hides him from view.

Jongdae steps out of the store. He’s around the same height as Junmyeon, and looks up at Jongin, frowning a little. “You have so much leg. Well, that’s fine,” He says to Junmyeon, in a voice that indicates it isn’t fine in the slightest, “At least I’m number two. That means Baekhyun is third.”

“Jongdae, this is Jongin,” Junmyeon says sternly. “Be nice to him. Have you seen Minseok? I need to speak to him before dinner.”

“He was on the other side of the beach,” Jongdae says. “By the caves.”

Junmyeon tosses the balled-up drawing towards the trash bin, and it bounces against the rim before falling in. “Jongin, can I leave you on your own for a few hours? You can walk around anywhere you like, but please be careful. We’re still building stairs and bridges in some of the farther areas of the island, so it might be best to stay close until then.”

Jongin promises to keep safe, and waves Junmyeon goodbye, not missing the warning look Junmyeon gives Jongdae before he leaves.

“Minseok’s actually on this side of the island,” Jongdae says, the moment Junmyeon is out of earshot. “Just over there, look. But Junmyeon won’t find out until he’s actually walked the whole island, looking for him.”

“Don’t you guys use phones?” Jongin asks, aghast. He watches Minseok’s sunbonnet disappear down the steps to the beach, carrying a basket of fruit.

“Well, it’s not ideal to carry anything important with you when there’s a high chance of being thrown into the sea at any given moment,” Jongdae explains.

“Is there a high chance of being thrown into the sea at any given moment?” Jongin repeats. He thinks of the phone in his pocket, and decides that his first course of action will be to return it to his cabin once his message to Kyungsoo goes through.

“You’ll see,” Jongdae says with a wink.

“Bring in some apples on your way back, I’ll make us juice and we can talk about getting you some nice decorations. Talk to you later, Jongin,” Jongdae says, and disappears into the store with a cheerful slam.

 _I can’t believe you’re actually living on an island_ , Kyungsoo responds, when Jongin texts him a photograph and a smiling selfie. _I’m glad you’re safe. I hope you’ll be happy there, Jongin! Please send me lots of messages._

☵

It takes much longer for Jongin to return to his cabin than he’d anticipated. Everywhere he turns he wants to stop to look at the scenery, the shell-lined beach, the abundance of apples growing above him, and the wildflowers whose names Jongin doesn’t know growing scattered along the uneven trail. The weather is warm but not uncomfortably so, and as the days move into autumn he thinks it’ll be just right.

He runs into another cabin a little ways down the road from his own, with a peach-colored roof and a stout fence halfway built along the side of it. There’s movement behind the thin curtain, and Jongin quietly backtracks, not wanting to intrude. He’ll ask Jongdae whose house it is later.

It’s only when he reaches his cabin does he realize he should have taken a basket with him. He’ll pick apples on his way back and get on Jongdae’s good side, and even though Jongin hadn’t planned on coming here to socialize, he won’t object to the possibility of making a new friend or two.

He places his phone on the end of his bed and steps out again, locking the door behind him. On his way back to the square, he takes a different path, this time walking along the grass that toes the edge of the beach.

There’s a picnic table out on the sand, and someone is sitting facing the ocean, his back turned towards Jongin. There’s a fishing rod on the table and a glass bowl by his feet, and Jongin sees that he’s caught a couple of seahorses.

Before he can chicken out, Jongin removes his shoes and walks down the smooth sand towards the picnic table. A few feet away, the person turns.

Like Junmyeon, he has a gentle smile, but he lights up when he sees Jongin. “You must be the new resident,” he says, “My name is Yixing. I’m the doctor on the island, but I hope we’ll only meet for good reasons, Jongin.”

Jongin gestures towards the seahorse, bending down to peek into the bowl. “Did you catch these today? I didn’t know seahorses swam so close to the shore.”

“We get different fishes on different days,” Yixing says. “Come out when it’s raining, and you’ll find a couple of interesting ones. Oh! You don’t have a rod yet, do you?”

Jongin shakes his head. He tells Yixing that he’s never been fishing either, but Yixing brushes off his worries.

“The fish here are kind,” Yixing says. “They’re not hard to catch.”

It’s a peculiar thing to say about a fish, but Jongin nods anyway. He listens as Yixing teaches him to craft his own fishing rod, and promises to meet Yixing again tomorrow with his own rod so they can fish together.

All in all, by the time Jongin makes it back to Jongdae, with sand in between his toes and as many apples as his arms can carry, it’s been a productive trip. Jongdae lets Jongin pour the apples onto his crafting table, and Sehun, whittling away at something with a small knife, puts both items down on the table to pull out a blender from the shelf behind him.

While they wait for the juice, Jongin looks down at what Sehun was making. It’s a wooden statue of a fish, with a large protruding forehead and pouting lips. The body in particular is remarkably done, each individual scale carved out with an impressive finesse.

“It’s a Napoleon fish,” Sehun says, looking over at Jongin. “They’re one of my favorite fishes.”

“Do you catch them a lot here?” Jongin asks. “I just met Yixing at the beach. He says the fish are kind.”

“He would,” Sehun says, shaking his head in disagreement. His fingers brush over his wooden fish fondly. “The last time someone caught a Napoleon fish was before Baekhyun.”

“Before Baekhyun what?” Jongin asks, but Sehun doesn’t hear him over the sound of the blender.

“Arrived,” Jongdae guesses. “Baekhyun was the last of us to move here. His house is close to yours, with the cute pink door. I painted it.”

Jongin hopes Baekhyun is at least as kind as a fish.

☵

The sun is high in the sky by the time Jongin emerges from his cabin the next day. He missed breakfast, and wonders if he’ll be catching and harvesting his own meals from here on out. His first-attempt at crafting a fishing rod is resting against the outside wall of the cabin, and Jongin grabs it before heading out.

He promised to meet Yixing today, and he hopes he hadn’t missed it. They hadn’t set a time.

Jongdae and Junmyeon are sitting on one of the wooden swing sets, Jongdae’s single leg rocking them while Junmyeon sits with his legs tucked beneath him, unwrapping a couple of lunch boxes. Junmyeon waves a hand holding a sandwich at Jongin when he passes.

“Good morning! Or shall I say afternoon? You slept for quite awhile, didn’t you?” Junmyeon calls.

“Yeah,” Jongin says sheepishly, approaching them.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s quite normal to be worn out from such a long trip and exciting change. The island is your new home for the next eight weeks, and we don’t care about things like time and productivity here. Jongdae, for example, spent his first six weeks picking fruit.”

“Just fruit?”

“Mainly pears,” Jongdae says. “I’d never tasted anything like them before I moved here. It was a life-changing experience.”

“Yes, well.” Junmyeon hands Jongdae a sandwich, and offers one to Jongin. “It’s egg mayo. I believe there are remarkable pears where Jongin comes from, so I hope he won’t be too disappointed in ours. I’m quite proud of our peaches, though.”

“You have a lot of fruit here,” Jongin says. He had planted an orange tree once, in his apartment back home. It had flourished tall and stately, but never bore any fruit. He thinks Kyungsoo must be using it as a coat rack now.

“I think Yixing’s calling you,” Junmyeon says, indicating behind Jongin with a tilt of his head. “Don’t let him keep you too long at fishing if you don’t want to. Yixing would fish all day if we let him, and he’s a little crispy by dinnertime.”

“Crispy,” Jongin repeats with a laugh. An island where the fish were kind and the humans were crispy. It was cute. He thanks Junmyeon for the sandwich and hurries to join Yixing.

Yixing is holding a bucket and a rolled up straw mat, and he hands the bucket to Jongin. He isn’t wearing any footwear.

The beach wraps around the entire front half of the island, and Yixing paces a short length of it a few times, staring into the water like he could gauge the amount of fish just by standing at the water’s edge.

“What are you looking for? Does the water look different? Is there something in the air? The wind?” Jongin asks.

“Nothing quite so complicated. Just looking into the water,” Yixing says, and he seems to find Jongin’s words funny. He points at a red fish, swimming strongly against the current as if trying to get to shore. Jongin stares. He hasn’t seen a lot of fish before, but this one seems unnaturally close to shore.

“Go on,” Yixing says. “Fish it up.”

Jongin fumbles with his fishing reel. The fish is so close he could reach down and pick it up with his bare hands; Yixing should have taught him how to make a net instead. He casts the line, and the fish bobs back and forth, considering.

Jongin tugs too quickly, and the fish flees into the sea.

“Good job! That’s it!” Yixing says, patting Jongin on the back. Jongin thinks Yixing’s under the false impression that he actually caught anything.

They set the mat and bucket down under a leafy palm. Yixing makes himself comfortable within moments, setting the rod up in a holder and showing Jongin how to mimic the effect in the sand.

For the next hour, Yixing tosses everything he catches right back into the sea. Jongin thinks he catches one of Yixing’s previous fish, a silver carp that narrowly escaped death and swam right back for the shore a second time.

Jongin puts it back in the water.

“Aren’t you keeping any of the fish?” Jongin asks.

Yixing shakes his head. “Minseok and Junmyeon caught a whole bunch yesterday, and we’re good for a little while. But if you catch something particularly delicious, I’ll let you know and we shall keep it in the bucket.”

But another two hours pass, and neither of them seem to catch anything that Yixing deems tasty enough. Yixing doesn’t look fazed by it at all, cheering each time Jongin catches something, looking the fish in the eye and thanking it before sending it sailing back towards the water.

When Junmyeon said they didn’t care about productivity here, Jongin’s bar had been still too high.

He’s dozing against the bark of the palm tree, the warm afternoon sun lulling him to sleep, when he finally hears the splash of a fish entering the bucket by his feet. Jongin sits up sleepily, peering into the bucket.

Swimming around in circles is a glittery patchwork quilt of a fish, looking like it was stitched together with leftover fabric from a shiny ball gown.

“He’ll like this one a lot,” Yixing says, nodding approvingly.

“Who are you giving it to?” Jongin asks.

“Jongdae collects them. He and the others are trying to put together an aquarium. If you catch any beautiful fish, you can give them to either Jongdae or Baekhyun. Sehun already keeps far too many of them in his cabin.”

“An aquarium?” The deserted island is sounding less like one every day.

“A small one,” Yixing says. “You haven’t walked around the back of the island yet, have you?”

The farther half of the island is kept separate by running rivers and tall cliffs, the kind of places Junmyeon warned him against going. He knows a lot of the villagers live there, he’s just not sure how they get back and forth without any stairs or bridges.

“Here, come on.” Yixing rolls up the straw mat and slings it across his back. Carefully, he lifts the bucket with the shiny fish in it, and beckons for Jongin to follow him with his free hand.

Jongin mourns his comfortable sleeping spot and follows behind Yixing. As they close in on the seaplane jetty, Jongin spots Minseok a few feet away, sitting under a row of cherry trees and reading a book.

Yixing stops walking and points towards the adjacent island. It’s heavily populated with trees, but from the angle they’re standing, Jongin spots the corner of a fairly large-sized building, almost completely hidden by the trees.

“That’s Jongdae’s work-in-progress aquarium. The last time I went in there, I accidentally stepped into a six-foot puddle. Junmyeon’s put work on hold for quality control,” Yixing says. “But Jongdae will be happy to talk your ear off about it.”

“Oh, it’s almost dinnertime,” Yixing says, looking up at the sun. Jongin looks at the orange tinge in the sky incredulously. He feels like he’d only just woken up and eaten Junmyeon’s sandwich for lunch.

“I’ll fish for a bit longer.” Yixing steps off the sand and onto the grass, using nature’s carpet to clean the sand from his feet. “I might try pond-fishing. Minseok will come, won’t you, Minseok?”

Minseok doesn’t even have a rod with him.

“Of course,” He says, closing his book and getting to his feet. “Don’t feel like you’re obliged to join us,” He says to Jongin.

“This is kind of all there is to the island,” Yixing says. “I hope it isn’t too boring.”

Jongin considers his options, and ends up following them to the pond. The fish are different in pondwater, and one of the first things Jongin catches is a goldfish with bulging eyes.

The excitement is too much for Jongin, and he lies in the grass, watching the clouds drift gentle across the sky. Neither Minseok or Yixing are very talkative, but they’re both comfortable to be around, and Minseok tells him about the book that he’s reading and gives Jongin a pair of binoculars.

Jongin feels crispy himself by the time he walks back to the village square for dinner, holding his shoes in one hand and his rod in the other. Yixing and Minseok chatter quietly as they walk, and eventually Yixing slips away to deliver the bucket of fishes to Sehun’s cabin.

Once the sun has set, Jongin purchases a postcard and stamp from Junmyeon, and takes both back to his room after dinner. His feet are sore from walking, and there’s a delightful satisfaction in scrubbing away all the day’s dirt and salt in the shower.

 _I spent six hours fishing today!_ Jongin writes to Kyungsoo, paired with his best attempt at a self-portrait holding a fish three times his size. There are some complimentary stickers in the drawer of his desk, and Jongin peels a couple off the plastic backing to decorate his message with hearts and stars.

It’s only the beginning, but Jongin thinks he’s going to enjoy the next eight weeks.

☵

Both Yixing and Junmyeon’s words turn out to be accurate. There’s little to do on the island, and even when it comes to daily tasks, nobody is intent on doing anything right.

They’re an odd bunch, but Jongin finds that he’s slowly growing fond of each one of them and their strange habits.

Jongdae builds seventeen chairs in the span of a week when he should be building bridges and fixing Yixing’s leaking roof. Sehun hides his wooden fishes all over the island, and Jongin finds them when he’s picking fruit, when he’s taking a nap in a hammock, when he’s fished out something heavy from the ocean that isn’t a real fish at all.

Junmyeon is on what must be a perpetual picnic, always wandering the island with a basket of food under one arm and never finding a place to settle down. Often, Jongin spies the others hiding behind trees and bushes, waiting to ambush him and pelt him with fruit. Junmyeon acts outraged to find them each time, but he also encourages the behavior by pretending not to see them while he strolls.

Minseok and Yixing never stop fishing, content even when they end the day with no more fish than they started with, and sometimes they’re sitting out on the beach without any rods or nets, just staring into the sea.

Baekhyun spends day after day hunched over in the flowerbeds. Jongin asks what he’s doing, and watches in bemusement as Baekhyun spends hours cross-pollinating purple tulips, hoping to get a golden rose, and refuses to listen to Jongin’s gentle suggestion that there’s a better way to do things.

Two weeks into his stay on the island, Jongin crosses his first river. The process is frightening and excessive and Jongin thinks he’d rather not cross at all. Baekhyun laughs and tells him to wade if he must, or jump if he can.

To Junmyeon’s horror, Jongin doesn’t find them same fear when scaling rocky cliff-faces.

With the newly gained access to the different parts of the island, Jongin wakes early and spends all day acquainting himself with the twists and turns. Yixing gives him a whistle for if he ever gets lost, and Jongin comes to the realization that he hasn’t touched his phone in days.

Apart from the traditional black phone on Junmyeon desk in his office, Jongin doesn’t know if any of them _own_ phones. He wonders how they keep in touch with the outside world, if they do at all, and if any of them are ever planning to leave the island.

The way they talk, sometimes, it’s like they’ve lived on the island their entire lives, even though Jongin knows that can’t be the case.

Jongin brings it up one afternoon, when he’s wandered for hours out in the sun and stumbles upon Minseok’s cabin in the middle of a forest. It’s one of the cuter cabins of the lot, a boxy green house with round windows and a gabled roof, and that’s saying a lot considering how pretty all the cabins are. Jongin smells the scent of cooking, and goes around the back of it to find Minseok frying some fish in a brick oven.

Minseok invites him inside for lunch, and it’s the first time Jongin’s entered any of their homes. It’s a simple home neatly organized with minimal furniture and a handful of books, and Jongin comments that there aren’t any photographs or mementos from his previous life.

“My family didn’t take any photos growing up,” Minseok says. He points towards his bedside table, and Jongin notices the polaroid camera that he missed before. There’s a small stack of photos beside it, and they’re all familiar faces: Jongdae laughing as he built a sandcastle, Sehun holding his hand in front of the lens and blocking half the frame, Junmyeon tossing a lemon in mid-air and frozen in time.

Minseok takes the photographs from him before he can shuffle through the rest.

“My parents live close by,” Minseok says. “Not that it matters. We don’t speak any more. My only family is the one that lives on this island now.”

They don’t talk about family any more after that. Minseok’s freshly caught fish is delicious when grilled in his quaint kitchenette, and Jongin washes the dishes under Minseok’s watchful eye.

Week three brings several consecutive rainy days to the island, and Jongin sits by the window watching the grass flood with little ponds. Sehun and Jongdae come to visit with umbrellas and a basket of food, and after lunch Jongdae goes next door with the umbrella to retrieve Baekhyun.

They play cards on Jongin’s cabin floor, the gentle patter of rain a soothing background lull. Baekhyun accuses Sehun of cheating, and Jongdae takes his cards when he isn’t looking. At long last, Baekhyun looks down at his deck in time to see Jongdae’s slim fingers sneaking away.

Jongdae laughs at him easily, and wraps Baekhyun against his side. He doesn’t cheat again, but wins the round with the stolen deck, ignoring Baekhyun grumbling against his shoulder.

At night, the rain eases to a drizzle, and they quickly scatter before it starts up again. Jongin feels warm and happy, and the pleasant feeling builds when he sees the light in Baekhyun’s cabin turn on in the distance.

He’s never had people he cared for live so close before; the feeling of being neighbors and friends at the same time sends a wave of unexpected happiness coursing through him. Knowing that there’ll be a tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

He writes another postcard to Kyungsoo, and falls asleep with the faraway glow of Baekhyun’s cabin reflected against his window.

☵

He’s awoken the next morning by the sound of shouting. It’s so loud that Jongin thinks someone is standing right outside his door, but when he stumbles out of the cabin, he only sees Jongdae’s fleeting back, sprinting towards the beach.

The few days of rain has finally come to an end but the ground is puddles, and Jongin’s jerked into wakefulness when he steps outside and straight into freezing rainwater. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Jongin hurries towards the small crowd gathered in the water near the landing jetty.

From a distance, it looks like they’ve caught something in the net that Minseok keeps out beneath the wooden deck. Sehun’s lanky frame is distinct, and he’s waist-deep in the water, pulling at whatever’s caught in the net. Baekhyun is standing beside him, partially submerged as he makes the same tugging motion, and Yixing is perched on the side of the deck, sawing away at the rope where the net is hung from.

Jongdae wades straight into the water to help, and the net comes loose from the pier by the time Jongin makes it to shore.

Baekhyun’s struggling so hard that it’s difficult to tell what’s going on, and Jongdae’s arms block most of him from view. Jongin stands back, not sure how to help, and when they’re almost out of the water, Jongin realizes he’s made two mistakes. One, Baekhyun’s arm is half-trapped in the net alongside the catch. And two, the catch isn’t something, it’s someone.

The group collectively collapses onto the sand as soon as they’re out of the water. Sehun stands up, and Jongin gets a glimpse of the body in the net, the humanoid, ashen skin and the long fishtail attached to the lower half of his body. It’s unconscious, body twisted out painfully on the shore, and scales splatter across the ground like shimmering sand-dollars under the morning sun.

Jongdae has a knife with him, and is making quick work of cutting Baekhyun’s arm free, but his hands are shaking badly, and Sehun’s not faring any better. Jongin rushes forward to help, but a hand grabs him before he can, tugging him away from the scene. Yixing shakes his head, gripping tight onto Jongin’s arm.

Finally, Baekhyun’s wrist slips free from the knotted tangle. He stumbles backwards into Jongdae’s arms, and Jongdae passes the knife over to Sehun, dragging Baekhyun a few paces away. Once they’re gone, Sehun takes over the work of cutting through the rest of the net, and the merman’s tail comes into full view.

It’s long and magnificent, an elegant shape tapering into a dipped half-moon arc, but the color is grotesque. The scales are a sallow, muted color, earthy browns mixed with a dirty, dishwater tone, and beneath the missing patches Jongin thinks he sees raw flesh and rust. Nausea rises up within him.

Sehun drops the knife into the sand, his hand is clasped to his mouth, and Jongin knows he isn’t dreaming.

If he dreamed of mermaids, they’d be far more beautiful than this.

“He’s still breathing,” Sehun says. “We need to get him back into the water.”

Jongdae returns to help, gathering the merman by the torso. Jongin has no idea why the merman had come so close to the shore, has no idea why there’s a merman here at all.

“Stay with Baekhyun,” Yixing orders, and Jongin nods.

Yixing hurries forward to lift the merman up by the shoulders, tangled golden hair tumbling down and getting caught in his fingers. As they approach the water, the waves sound particularly loud and menacing.

Baekhyun doesn’t react to Jongin’s presence, not until Jongin notices a few stray scales stuck to Baekhyun’s arm. He brushes them off, and Baekhyun jumps like he’d been electrocuted.

“Sorry,” Jongin whispers. He picks up a scale, approximately the size of a quarter, and it crumbles when he applies pressure to it. Around them, the air feels thick and uneasy.

When he looks up, the others are nowhere to be seen.

Fear flares up in his chest immediately, and he lunges forward, taking a step towards the water. The merman can’t have drowned them— had he?

Before the panic drives him another step, Sehun surfaces from the water, Jongdae and Yixing following shortly behind him, swimming in swift, powerful strokes. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes before they arrive at the shore.

Jongdae returns to Baekhyun’s side, talking quietly as he coaxes Baekhyun away from the beach. Sehun joins them seconds later. Even from a distance, their postures radiate evident distress.

Jongin can’t help but feel like he’s intruding on something he shouldn’t. He turns back to Yixing.

“Is Baekhyun going to be okay? Was that real?” Jongin asks. “There are merpeople in the water?”

“Why don’t we talk after breakfast?” Yixing says. “I think this is a conversation we should be sitting down for.”

Jongin looks back towards the water, then down at the scales by his feet.

“It was real. It wasn’t a dream.”

“It was real,” Yixing agrees. “Come, let us talk.”

☵

So there are merfolk in the waters surrounding the island.

Jongin lives with the knowledge for a few days, not knowing what to do with it. It doesn’t change anything on the island. For the next day or two, there was a depressive air around the village, everyone a little more somber; but the day after that, everything bounced back to normal.

Yixing assures Jongin that most of the merfolk were not dangerous and he had no reason to be afraid, but it takes a few more days of watching the water before Jongin realizes he’s never seen anyone go swimming. Minseok patches the net up and puts it back out by the deck, and Jongin can’t help but think: is there something else out there that they’re trying to catch?

So there are merfolk in the water surrounding the island, but Jongin lives on land, and things go back to the way they were. Life on the island goes on.

☵

Even though the island wears him out, some nights Jongin still can’t sleep. He blames it on the quiet— he was used to the honking of cars until early morning, and the sound of footsteps up and down his apartment corridor all night. Here, it’s too peaceful, and sometimes the silence wakes him for no reason apart from to be contrary.

Usually, he falls back asleep. Some nights, he fishes absently without catching anything, not putting any bait on the hook. He picks fruit and leaves it in baskets outside Baekhyun’s cabin and the village store. Sits on the swing and stares out at the dark sea until he falls asleep curled up in his duvet.

It’s a few days after the mermaid incident when Jongin’s wandering around the perimeter of the small island and thinks he hears singing. He hears singing all the time, particularly from Baekhyun and Jongdae, who never seem to stop as long as they’re awake.

But the voice doesn’t sound like either of theirs.

Jongin stops to listen, trying to figure out who it is. The sound is so faint he can barely make the voice out over the screaming cicadas, except the alluring tune of it. Jongin’s next thought are sirens— and he claps both hands over his ears.

He thinks of the merman he saw the other day, washed up on shore, and wonders if it is the same one. If he’d recovered enough to sing this beautiful melody, and if he’s on a nearby rock, charming insomniac villagers into the sea.

Jongin lifts a hand from his ear.

There’s no immediate compulsion to jump into the water, and he cautiously removes his hands, pulling his duvet over his head like a shawl. The song leads him to the edge of the island, looking across a small stream into the next island, where the trees are dense, overgrown territory. He thinks it’s where Jongdae lives. Sehun says it’s boring, and Baekhyun says it’s full of odd collectibles and construction material.

When Jongin stops on the other side of the bank, he can see nothing but the far edge of Jongdae’s work-in-progress aquarium building, and two small cabins, side by side. He thinks he recognizes the faint outline of Sehun’s bicycle in the front garden of one of them.

Although tempted, Jongin thinks better of attempting the jump across in the dark of the night. He can’t imagine Junmyeon’s horrified expression if he found out Jongin was washed away in the river while trying to leap across islands in the night.

The singing ebbs away so softly Jongin wonders if he imagined it. He sits on a stump, legs tucked to his chest, and waits, hoping to hear it again. For a long time, there is only stillness.

He’s about to get up and leave when it picks up again, the barely-there melody of a song Jongin’s never heard before. The voice is so low it’s hardly above a vibration, and even though Jongin can’t make out the words, a heavy-heartedness settles in the pit of his stomach.

The song goes on for several long minutes. Jongin stays utterly still for the duration of it, almost afraid any movement will break the spell. This time, when it ends, it doesn’t start up again.

Jongin lingers by the water’s edge, waiting, but eventually he has to admit that it’s over. He creeps back to his cabin, and dreams of a faceless voice luring him into the ocean while he sleeps.

☵

“Who lives on that island?” Jongin asks, during breakfast the next morning. Junmyeon has made grape-jelly jam, which doesn’t go at all with the biscuits they have laid out, but here they are, anyway.

Minseok, passing by, takes one look at the table and hightails it in the other direction.

“Jongdae and Sehun. Why?”

Jongin has heard both of their singing, and it wasn’t either of them. A horrible thought strikes him.

“Are there ghosts?” Jongin asks. “Ghosts, here?”

He didn’t sign up for this.

“Ghosts? Not on this island. Why? Did you see Sehun in his nightgown?” Junmyeon asks, focused solely on his grape biscuit.

Sehun in his— _what_?

“No, I thought I heard someone singing,” Jongin says. He takes a bite of his own biscuit. It’s sweet and crumbly. Too sweet for breakfast. He puts it down.

Junmyeon is staring at him.

“It’s not too bad,” Jongin says hurriedly, picking the biscuit up again.

“You heard someone singing?”

“Maybe?” Jongin shrugs. After a restless night of sleep, Jongin woke up wondering if he might have dreamed the whole thing. But the dirt stains in his duvet when he woke up told a different story.

Baekhyun had hung over the fence, watching as Jongin did the laundry, and snuck a whole outfit into the basket when he thought Jongin wasn’t looking.

“Are there are a lot of mermaids around here?” Jongin asks. “I thought it was a siren at first. It had a very beautiful voice.”

Junmyeon looks like he’s seen a ghost. “What did it sound like?”

Jongin hums the first line of the song, and Junmyeon stands up, dropping his jar of grape jelly. Jongin catches it, marveling at his own quick reflexes, but Junmyeon is gone.

☵

For the next few nights, although Jongin paces the island into the early morning, he doesn’t hear the singing again. He writes what he can remember of the melody down in his notebook, but the song keeps morphing in his head, until it eventually becomes the jingle for a laundry detergent advertisement from Jongin’s childhood.

He’s taking one of his long walks early one morning, crossed over to Jongdae and Sehun’s island and wondering why they lived so far out from the rest of the cabins, when the sky rumbles once in warning and cracks open immediately after. Rain pelts hard against the ground.

Jongin holds his duvet over himself and takes off in a run towards he nearest shelter. It’s Jongdae’s work-in-progress aquarium, the door thankfully unlocked when Jongin turns the handle and throws himself inside. He prays that the building is at least sturdy to hold up and not collapse— it's been standing fine so far, although he’s unsure about the rest of it.

Inside, it is dimly lit, faint light glowing from deeper inside the building and not the complete darkness that Jongin expected. The entryway is a narrow ramp downwards, and he can hear the sound of running water and whooshing in the air vents above him. It doesn’t look like a place that’s still being built, it looks like he’s stepped into an elite nightclub with a long entryway.

The rain continues to batter at the door, unreasonably heavy for how quickly it had come. Jongin wanders deeper into the building, hoping that there will be someplace he can sit to wait out the storm.

Feeling his way down the ramp via some convenient handrails, he turns around the corner. At first, the light is too bright to make out what he’s looking at, or maybe, Jongin just can’t believe his eyes.

But he blinks, once, twice, and the picture remains the same.

There’s a merman in a tank.

☵

Jongin’s first reaction is pure shock. He’s standing in a cold room, his clothing soaked, and the dark blue room he steps into is paneled with a massive floor-to-ceiling glass wall holding up thousands of gallons of water.

Behind the glass, a long tail swooshes back and forth, a prism of soft flames burning underwater. The movement leaves a faint shimmer in the water, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful, nothing like the tail of the merman they’d seen on the beach a week ago.

It takes a long while before Jongin pulls his eyes away from the fluttering tail to look at the face of the merman. He doesn’t notice Jongin, and Jongin sinks back into the shadows, hand clasped across his mouth.

Was he a prisoner? Had the others trapped him here? Was he dangerous?

His racing thoughts must have been too loud, for the merman pauses, looking around the dim room outside the glass tank, scanning the darkness. He doesn’t see Jongin, and for a split second, Jongin thinks he’s safe, but the moment passes and they make eye contact.

The pale face looks shocked at the sight of Jongin, and in the blink of an eye he’s vanished into a multicolored bed of corals. It’s only then that Jongin notices that there are other fish in the tank, small ones, medium-sized ones, and slightly larger ones. The color of water sifts with the movement of each fish, Jongin thinks he recognizes some of them as the ones he and Yixing caught over the past few weeks.

The pretty ones that Yixing said someone would like.

Jongin approaches the glass shakily. He’s shivering, both from cold and shock, and he pulls the damp duvet tighter around himself.

“Hey,” He calls, unsure if the merman can hear or even understand him. “Please come out. Don’t be afraid of me.”

The enormous clamshell at the bottom of the tank cracks open an inch.

“That’s right,” Jongin coaxes.

Nothing else happens, no matter how long Jongin waits. He’s freezing, and he tries to look around for the fuse box. When he does find it, however, he glances back at the tank, hesitant. He’s afraid messing with anything, however minute, might hurt the creatures in the aquarium.

The merman still hasn’t made an appearance, and Jongin drops his hand from the dials of the circuit.

There’s a bench a few feet away, and Jongin curls up on it. He can still hear the raindrops pounding against the roof, and he turns his face towards the tank, watching the fishes swim back and forth through the corals.

Right before he falls asleep he thinks he sees a faint shimmer in the water.

☵

Someone is prodding at him, stirring him from sleep. The chatter around him is a level of noise associated with his apartment back in the city, and when Jongin flops over and opens his eyes, he’s confused to find Yixing staring down at him.

He isn’t in his comfortable bed at his cabin, either. Jongin sits up, his stiff muscles protesting, and the previous night’s activities slam into him. He looks past Yixing towards the tank.

Minseok is standing inside the enclosure, near the top of the tank, where there’s a platform of rocks and plants. The water is a flurry of activity, fishes glinting and swarming around near his feet, hungry for food.

The pearl shell on the seabed is wide open and empty, and the merman is nowhere to be seen.

“Where did he go?” Jongin asks. He scans the water, his leg wobbling beneath him when he stands. He’d spent all night curled up on the narrow bench with his duvet pulled over him. It’s no wonder his body aches.

Jongin looks over at Yixing.

“It was late—” Yixing begins.

“No,” Jongin cuts off. “I know what I saw. Don’t tell me I dreamed it. You have a merman captive in a tank.”

A heavy hand rests on Jongin’s shoulder.

For the first time since Jongin’s met him, Junmyeon isn’t smiling.

“There’s no reason to get angry,” He says. “You’re right. We have a merman in a tank, but he isn’t held here against his will. You should go take a hot shower. It looks like you got caught in the rain last night.”

“You have a merman in a tank,” Jongin repeats dumbly, and lets Jongdae usher him back home to take a shower.

☵

For the rest of the day, it’s apparent that everyone is avoiding Jongin. He emerges from his cabin in clean clothes, warmed from his shower, and hurries back to the aquarium, but the door is locked and no amount of rattling can get anyone to let him in.

The town store, always occupied by at least one or two villagers, remains empty. Junmyeon’s office is locked, and the fishing spot where Yixing usually sets camp at looks as though he was snatched away mid-activity, line bobbing away in the water.

Jongin wanders the island, poking things with a stick, feeling restless and irritated. All the cabins are vacant, and Jongin even scales a fairly tall tree to see if he can get a better view of the island. There’s not a single person in sight.

Jongin drops down the tree, brushing leaves and bark off his palms.

It’s evident that they must all be inside the aquarium, with the merman.

He heads back home to grab his phone. There’s never reception inside his cabin, but he drafts a message to Kyungsoo while walking towards the square, backspacing and rewriting it several times. He’s not sure what to say.

Junmyeon is waiting for him when Jongin crosses the island again. He’s holding a picnic basket, but his smile looks forced, like he’s about to have a nervous breakdown beneath Jongdae’s beloved pear tree.

“Jongin! Want to go for a picnic? Sehun will join us in a minute.”

“Are you really going to pretend there isn’t a merperson captive in your building a few yards away?” Jongin asks, yanking away from Junmyeon’s grip. He heads towards the building again, determined to get inside one way or another, but Junmyeon is stronger than he looks.

Jongin gives up struggling and looks over at Junmyeon, crossing his arms.

“I’m not going to forget what I saw.”

Junmyeon’s lips are bitten pink. “We were going to tell you,” he lies, and terribly. It sets Jongin’s teeth on edge. “Why don’t we sit down and wait for Sehun?”

It’s the most uncomfortable picnic Jongin’s ever been on. He almost thinks he preferred when the others were ignoring him. Sehun shows up after several minutes, but it’s clear his mind is elsewhere.

The other villagers take turns to sit down. They’re stalling for time, a baton pass at keeping Jongin company. No one outright denies the existence of the merman, but they keep trying to talk about the weather instead. The few things Jongin gets out from any of them don’t match up, like they’re all telling lies they haven’t had the time to corroborate.

By late afternoon, Jongin is sick of eating out of cute lunch boxes and hammering questions into blank stares. He busies himself eating the bear-shaped sandwiches, trying hard to be patient, trying hard not to run. When Baekhyun sits down beside him, Jongin leaps to his feet.

He’s spent weeks on the island, running and climbing and jumping, and he’s never been in better shape. He frees his hand from Baekhyun’s panicked grasp and leaps over the stream separating both islands, sprinting towards the aquarium building.

He misjudges the distance to the building and slams into the metal door, his head ringing. Clinging to the handle and jingling it, he calls, as loud as he can, “Jongdae! Sehun! Let me in!”

The door opens and Jongin nearly tumbles inside. Minseok steps out, pushing Jongin out of the way and closing the door behind him. The corners of his mouth are turned down as he studies Jongin.

“Bring us a fish,” Minseok says, and the request is so unexpected that Jongin stops shouting to stare at him.

“What?”

“Bring us a beautiful fish, and I’ll let you in,” Minseok says.

Jongin raises an eyebrow apprehensively. By this time, Baekhyun has caught up to them, panting for breath.

“A beautiful fish?” Jongin repeats.

“Anything shimmery will do,” Minseok says, ignoring the way Baekhyun is tugging desperately at his sleeve. “It’s not a trick. Go on. I’ll let you in if you can bring us something pretty.”

Jongin storms over to Jongdae’s house and grabs the net and bucket sitting by his mailbox. Baekhyun is murmuring to Minseok in a low voice, and eventually he lets himself into the building, giving Jongin a final, wary, glance.

The first two fishes Jongin catch look as disgruntled to be caught as Jongin is to catch them. He tosses them both back into the stream, and on the third try, fishes out a sharp, silver fish.

“Nope,” Minseok says. Jongin rolls his eyes, and flings the fish back into the river. The fourth escapes Jongin’s grasp with an impressive flop, and the fifth glints under the sunlight as Jongin pulls it out the water.

He drops it into the bucket.

“A bitterling,” Minseok says, squinting down at it. “It’s a little tiny, but it’ll do. You pass. Hand me your phone.”

Suspiciously, Jongin passes it over. In the dramatic slowed-down frame of a second, Minseok flicks his wrist back and flings it into the water.

“What?” Jongin gapes, turning so sharply he gives himself whiplash. His hand is still lifted in mid-air, where just a moment ago he’d held his phone.

Minseok is unsympathetic. “You want to know what’s going on here, right? We can’t have you telling anyone.”

“You could have taken my phone away, not tossed it into the ocean! My friend Kyungsoo… my photographs…” Jongin crouches down by the stream with the net, flipping the phone over several times before he manages to pick it up in the net.

“You can borrow my camera,” Minseok says. He pushes the door of the aquarium open, gesturing for Jongin to step inside.

Nervously, Jongin wonders if he’s going to be fed instead of the bitterling, and if he’s walking right into a trap. He wonders if it’s too late to pretend he hadn’t seen a thing.

They enter the viewing room, and the blue glow touches every inch of Jongin’s skin. The water is empty— and all of a sudden, it isn’t.

Jongin’s mouth falls open as the merman appears from behind the corals, coming up to the glass so that he’s eye-to-eye with Jongin. His tail might be considered gaudy as a costume, ruffled silks attached to a gleaming accouterment, but everything about it is too perfect for an expensive party trick.

Someone puts a hand on Jongin’s shoulder, and he jumps. He’s forgotten that there were other people in the room.

“His name is Chanyeol,” Yixing says. “Say hello. He can hear you.”

Jongin takes a tentative step towards the glass.

“Hello, Chanyeol.”

The merman smiles. It’s a surprisingly human smile, sweet and soft, not sharp teeth bared in the face of prey.

“You have a merman in a tank,” Jongin says in disbelief. He’s been saying it all day; and maybe, he’d expected at some point for someone to tell him that he was mistaken. Standing here with Chanyeol in front of him, the possibility goes from slim to none.

Jongin thinks he must have dropped his phone on the ground somewhere, he’s no longer holding it.

“How many— how did you—”

Chanyeol traces something in the water with his finger. Even his fingernails are opalescent. He looks at Jongin again, before floating away, no longer interested.

“Jongin brought you a snack, Chanyeol,” Minseok calls. “It’s a bitterling.”

Chanyeol peeks down at Jongin, and waves his tail. He makes no move to go down to greet Jongin like he had before. Instead, he climbs onto the outcropping of rocks at the surface of the water, stretching out in a peculiarly feline motion and making himself comfortable. His tail is the only part of him still submerged, and it sways lazily back and forth in the water.

“Does he understand us?” Jongin asks.

“If you bring more fish, he will. The language Chanyeol understands the best is shiny fish.” Jongdae laughs, from over Jongin’s shoulder.

“I guess you won’t have a problem communicating. Jongin will catch you a lot more food from now on, won’t he?” Minseok says.

Jongin gets the distinct impression that he’s the one being baited. He doesn’t care. He’ll fish from the minute he wakes up, if he has to.

It’s not until Jongin returns later, with a bucket of three glittering fishes and a sunburn, does Chanyeol dive down into the water in front of Jongin to give him a silent hello.

☵

Minseok says that Chanyeol isn’t a siren. Jongin can’t explain the pull Chanyeol has on him— they’ve never spoken more than a couple of words from Jongin’s end, but somehow Jongin’s day is never complete without a visit to the aquarium.

More often than not, Sehun is lying on the bench in front of the glass tank, absently flipping through a magazine even though it’s too dark to be reading anything in viewing room. He rarely interacts with Chanyeol, at least when Jongin is there, but he watches Jongin carefully as he lugs his daily bucket of fish into the room and shows each one to Chanyeol, waiting for a reaction.

They don’t allow Jongin into the tank to feed Chanyeol.

Still, everything about Chanyeol is enchanting. Despite the way he looks like he wants to eat Jongin sometimes, he’s curious and cheerful and shies away when Jongin stares at him for too long. It’s cute, watching him hide in his pearl bedroom and peek up at Jongin with large eyes, waiting for him to leave.

Jongin always goes when that happens. Sehun, reading the same magazine every single day without fail, when he thinks Jongin is out of earshot says, “Whatever are you afraid of him for? You could snap his fragile human body like a twig without straining a muscle.”

Chanyeol sleeps late into the day, and the few times Jongin had tried to visit in the mornings, he’d only gotten glimpses of Chanyeol’s tail billowing from behind the waving reef, and Sehun’s judgmental stare.

Jongin has to remind himself that he hadn’t escaped his stifling eight-by-twelve foot box in the city to spend time in a literal cage, and steps back outside into the sunshine and fresh air that he’d paid good money for.

He makes sure he spends his mornings outdoors, reminding himself that he has friends in the outside world, ones who thankfully seem amused by his infatuation rather than concerned.

“Chanyeol’s not that interesting once you’re used to him. I’d rather watch a swarm of bees,” Jongdae says, pointing at what Jongin realizes with horror is exactly that. He flees and leaves Jongdae to his certain future.

Jongin can see how Jongdae thinks what he does, considering Chanyeol never does anything except lounge and swim, but for the time being, it’s the most captivating thing Jongin’s ever seen. He has to remind himself too, that a little over a week ago he hadn’t even known that merpeople existed, and he can go easy on himself given the circumstances.

Not all the villagers have predictable routines, but Jongin can usually count on spending some time fishing with Yixing or building furniture with Jongdae.

Jongdae is crafting a boat now, despite his claims that he doesn’t want to go out to sea. Jongin helps him, passing him tools when asked and wondering if the fish out in the deep sea are shinier than the ones at shore.

Baekhyun continues his landscaping experiments all over the island, and one afternoon he appears in the village square with a shovel, digging holes all over the patch of earth outside the store for a new flowerbed. The window is propped open with a book, and Jongin can hear snippets of Jongdae and Sehun’s conversation from outside.

The way Baekhyun digs, there’s more dirt on him than in the holes that he’s trying to fill up. It’s like the shovel has a mind of it’s own, and Jongin takes some hasty steps back when the shovel flies from Baekhyun’s grip like a loose baseball bat.

The shovel slams against the wall of the store, and the book at the window slips off the pane. The window snaps shut.

Jongdae’s head pops out from inside the store. “Have you considered being careful?” He asks. “Jongin, you’d better come inside. It looks dangerous out there.”

Baekhyun glowers at Jongdae, crouched on the ground holding the handle of his shovel. Jongin catches sight of a scar running up the side of his thigh in the slight rise of his shorts. He winces, wondering if there had been a worse accident in the past.

He escapes into the store and watches Sehun carve for a couple of hours. Both Jongdae and Sehun have attempted to teach him woodwork, but Jongin doesn’t think their efforts have paid off. Anything Jongin builds still looks like it was picked fresh off the ground in the forest.

He flips through Sehun’s handwritten encyclopedia of fish, smiling at his drawings and notes. He even has them ranked according to deliciousness level, and some fish have little asterisks beside them that say things like ‘Minseok’s favourite’ and ‘Junmyeon NO’. Jongin combs the book wondering if he can find anything on Chanyeol, and periodically looks out the window to make sure that Baekhyun hasn’t hurt himself.

It’s not until he returns to his cabin much later does he realize that despite all Baekhyun’s digging and filling of the holes, not once had he seen Baekhyun plant a seed.

As expected, the flowerbed outside the store doesn’t end up sprouting. But inside the aquarium, Chanyeol begins awaiting Jongin’s arrival each afternoon, curling up by the glass of the tank near the bench. Jongin revels in the soft fondness blooming between them, and his heart is warm with happiness.

☵

When it’s not Sehun attending watch duty, it’s Minseok at the aquarium. Jongin hears him talking to Chanyeol a lot. It’s funny to think of the quiet Minseok having a one-sided conversation with anyone, but it brings a smile to Jongin’s face.

Exactly a week since Chanyeol’s discovery, Jongin brings his largest, prettiest fish yet, and an unfamiliar voice says, “Come inside, Jongin.”

Jongin jumps, and looks behind him at Minseok. It sounded like the voice had come from behind the glass. Chanyeol is floating lazily at the surface of the water, and he flops over to look at Jongin, his face puffy and round with locks of hair fanned out around him.

“Chanyeol—” Minseok begins, but Chanyeol shushes him.

“Jongin won’t hurt me, will you, Jongin? Come in here, I want to see you up close.”

‘ _He speaks?_ ’ Jongin mouths to Minseok, awed, and Minseok ignores him.

With trembling hands and knees, Jongin climbs the ladder that leads to the catwalk on the second floor. He’s shown to a dark curtain-hidden entrance that opens into to a small room. Inside, there’s a long wooden table, an old Japanese-style soaking tub, a sleeping bag and enough seats for a game of musical chairs.

“Chanyeol’s through the door at the end,” Minseok says. “Let yourself in. I’ll wait here.”

“Will he eat me?” Jongin asks.

“That depends on Chanyeol,” Minseok says. “Try not to glitter and you’ll be fine.”

Nervously, Jongin gives a short knock and pushes open the door. He finds himself standing at the door of the enclosure, where a small platform of rocks and seashells lead into the water where Chanyeol is waiting.

“You came!” Chanyeol says, like he hadn’t just watched Jongin climb up the ladder to his door. “Come sit down with me.”

“No, thank you. Please don’t eat me.”

“I’ve already eaten my lunch. Sit with me, Jongin,” Chanyeol says.

Crossing his fingers briefly for luck, Jongin steps into the tank.

☵

Seeing Chanyeol without the glass between them is surreal in a completely different way. He is curious about everything and always wants to play, and Jongin brings him odds and ends from the suitcase in his room, including an unread paperback book that Chanyeol takes a shine to and carries into his underwater home.

When Jongin peers into the corals from above the water, he can see that Chanyeol’s stolen all kinds of trinkets from the land: chairs, picture frames, ceramic plates, a mop and a wind-up duck. Who knew what other treasure had sunk between the leaves of murky plants and out of sight.

“Who is giving you all these things?” Jongin asks in amazement, when Chanyeol surfaces from the water with the new haul of items he wants to show Jongin, including a single ice-skate and a lightbulb.

He takes the lightbulb from Chanyeol.

“You shouldn’t have this, you could hurt yourself,” He says.

Chanyeol cocks his head to the side. “Do you want it? Baekhyun said it was very rare. You should take this too, they’re a matching set.”

“Baekhyun is a liar.” Jongin sighs. Chanyeol generously gives Jongin a pencil to go with his lightbulb.

Everyone has something different to say about Chanyeol when Jongin asks: that he’s their king, a sacrifice, a pet, or an afternoon snack. At least six out of seven of them must be jokes, but Jongin can’t tell which one is the truth.

Junmyeon carefully screens Jongin’s letters before sending them out, but Jongin promised not to tell anyone about Chanyeol or the merfolk in the surrounding waters, and he’s not inclined to break that promise anytime soon.

“Do you want to be friends?” Chanyeol asks one afternoon. There’s a motor-operated sunroof in the aquarium, and Jongin’s cracked it open so that Chanyeol can sit in a square of sunshine. His tail is practically luminous in the sunlight, and the droplets of water on his skin twinkle as he moves. The golden sun highlights even the tiniest details on Chanyeol’s skin, the thin gills between the juncture of his neck and collarbone, and the tiny scales scattered across his upper arms and chest that vanish under the trick of the light.

Jongin was under the impression that they were already friends, and he tells Chanyeol as much.

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Chanyeol says. He dives into the water and disappears without a word.

Jongin hopes he hasn’t offended him.

They’re doing everything out of order, an innocent friendship blooming in a strangers-to-lovers plotline, one where Jongin thinks he’s raced ahead of the plot to the end, while Chanyeol meanders along slowly on a different page.

It’s been a very long time Jongin’s felt the giddiness of falling too fast, and the feeling isn’t entirely unwelcome. His first love had been magical, but it was also a very long time ago. When it ended, Jongin thought there would be more to follow, but it was like he’d gone to bed one night and the remainder of his youth had passed him by, unremarkable.

He’ll never have anyone like Chanyeol again and he’ll take it, in whatever form he can get.

For a few long minutes, it’s only Jongin and the sound of the rattling coming from the filter. He dips his hand into the water, tracing along the discarded shells and barnacles embedded deep into the face of the rock and wonders if Chanyeol can communicate with them, and if he could, what they’d say.

When Chanyeol emerges from the water again, he’s hiding something behind his back, and his smile has a tinge of anxiousness to it.

“Since we’re friends now,” He says, “I got you some presents.”

Jongin crouches down at the edge of the rocky platform and extends his hand obediently when Chanyeol asks for it. Humming, Chanyeol arranges across his palm two small corals that resemble brains, a gross fungus-like plant, a wriggling fish and half a handful of pale sand from the bottom of the tank.

“Thank you…?” Jongin says. The fish tickles, and Jongin drops everything. The fish swims off, and the corals sink to the bottom of the tank in slow-motion. Chanyeol looks up at Jongin with the most crestfallen expression Jongin’s ever had the misfortune to come face-to-face with.

“Sorry, c’mere,” Jongin says, tugging Chanyeol over to give him a hug.

“You didn’t like them,” Chanyeol accuses.

“They were wonderful, I loved them,” Jongin says. “I want them to be happy in the water, free. That will make me the happiest.”

Chanyeol looks at him suspiciously, but allows himself to be consoled by Jongin’s soft petting of his salt-crusted hair. In all honesty, Chanyeol’s dripping water onto Jongin’s clothes and it isn’t the most pleasant experience. Still, with the way he leans into the touch, Jongin figures he can sacrifice being dry for a bit.

“Are we still friends even if you didn’t like my presents?” Chanyeol asks.

“I loved your presents,” Jongin says, and stops. He wants to tell Chanyeol that it’s the thought that counts, and that the thought makes Jongin feel like he’s spun out of sugar, floating in cotton candy. He doesn’t, though; it might be a little too forward for someone who just found out they were friends today.

“Are you sure you aren’t captive?” Jongin asks, for what must be the tenth time since he’s started visiting. Chanyeol plucks several starfish from the water and lines them up according to size. “Do you want me to help you escape?”

The merman laughs, a tinkling sound. When he laughs, the laughter travels down the entirety of his body. Jongin is so fond of it.

“If you’re not trapped, then why are you here?” Jongin presses.

Chanyeol looks up, and white foam crests over the rocks, sucking the starfish back into the deep end. “I think the question you should be asking, is why are _you_ here, Jongin?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im even sorrier for this chapter than i was for the last one 

Jongdae abandons his boat just as Jongin finally gets the hang of helping out. He wants to make juice now, every hour of the day, and Jongin is dragged along for the ride, picking fruit until his fingers are bruised. Baekhyun carries a foldable chair while trailing behind them, and asks to be fed grapes by hand.

He carves his first wooden fish with Sehun, and it turns out fairly cute, though realistic would be a stretch for the imagination. He helps Junmyeon dust and put away the unused files in his office. He finally gets some seeds for Baekhyun, though they’re used only as often as they are not. He teaches Minseok how to cook some of the dishes that Kyungsoo used to love, and with the help of a ladder, finally evactuates the birds from Yixing’s attic and patches up the leaky hole in his roof.

Each day passes by like a dream, and everything falls into place with an astounding suddenness. There’s a skip in Jongin’s step wherever he goes, and now, whenever they’re rained in, the whole island congregates in the back room by Chanyeol’s tank with food and games, and keep the tub filled so Chanyeol can join them.

“He’s our friend,” Minseok says, when Jongin catches sight of him making a special portion of pasta that Chanyeol can eat without poisoning his system. He can’t stop himself from looking at Chanyeol, sitting at the edge of the tub and talking to Sehun, hands waving in the air excitedly as he speaks.

They won’t tell Jongin how they met, but Jongin knows that it’s true. He no longer asks Chanyeol if he needs help escaping, although once or twice, Chanyeol puts a cold hand on his ankle and asks coyly, “Aren’t you going to offer to rescue me?”

Jongin continues to write postcards to Kyungsoo, his waterlogged phone sitting in a bowl of rice in his cabin and hoping for a miracle. He doesn’t tell Kyungsoo the details about Chanyeol, except that he’s made a new friend, and he doesn’t mention how he wishes he could be more.

Jongin knows they’ll never be anything more than a curious study to the other. But Chanyeol curls up by Jongin’s folded legs and builds them a kingdom of sand, and Jongin suspends the outside world to live in the moment a little longer.

And in those moments of weakness, he allows himself a bit of indulgence, thinking about whether Chanyeol would eat his eggs sunny side up in the mornings and if he’d sing in the shower, overwater Jongin’s plants and other mundane things like that.

(He thinks the answer to all those questions, is yes.)

☵

Before he knows it, Jongin hasn’t checked a calendar in over a month, and he comes to the screeching realization that his holiday is coming to an end in two weeks.

It’s a realization that should probably have struck him sooner, but may very well have come later, if Jongin hadn’t overheard a few of the others arguing about him in Junmyeon’s office.

Jongin doesn’t mean to eavesdrop. He was only dropping off the rare fruits he’d found outside his cabin, and he probably would have walked right by if the first word he heard hadn’t been his name.

“We shouldn’t let him visit Chanyeol anymore,” Minseok is saying, and it becomes apparent that they’re discussing him. “Chanyeol’s becoming too fond.”

“I’m becoming too fond!” Junmyeon says. “He laughs at my jokes now, you know? We should have picked someone else from the list.”

“Jongin should consider himself lucky! Chanyeol’s tail is beautiful,” Jongdae says, and someone sighs. A chair drags across the wooden floor, and Jongin pretends he’s tying his shoelace, just in case, but no one approaches the door.

“I warned Chanyeol,” Comes Minseok’s voice again.

“We should warn Jongin, too.”

“Don’t do anything rash—”

Jongin considers himself warned. He backs away from the door, taking his fruits with him, and sits down on the beach instead of visiting Chanyeol like he’d planned to. He bites into a crunchy apple and traces figure-eights in the sand with the stem once he’s finished with it.

He has two weeks left on the island, and he’s nowhere closer to figuring out where he fits in, except exactly where he is right now. He hadn’t meant to fall so hard for the island and its inhabitants.

It’s a respite, a holiday, but it isn’t a lifestyle, and Jongin hates that it cannot be. He’s good at simple things like this, appreciates the straightforwardness of this kind of life. Flopping back in the sand, he lets out a frustrated huff and closes his eyes.

He loses track of time staring directly at the sun sinking into the ocean, and it’s late by the time he makes it to the aquarium to see Chanyeol.

Oddly, there’s no one around but them, and Chanyeol doesn’t notice Jongin entering. He’s singing to himself on the bed of rocks, tail swishing back and forth, causing ripples in the water around him.

Jongin sucks in a deep breath. Sometimes, he doesn’t spend enough time just looking at Chanyeol. He’s a vision, every last bit of him looking like a master’s painting of a fantastical being. Jongin rummages for the camera in his bag and snaps a photograph.

The flash lights up the aquarium and Chanyeol startles, diving into the water to hide. When he notices Jongin, he taps against the glass and motions for Jongin to join him. Jongin scales the ladder in record time and climbs through the door into the enclosure.

“What’s wrong?” Chanyeol asks, the moment Jongin sits down.

“I’m leaving in two weeks,” He tells Chanyeol, and watches Chanyeol’s face fall. It should feel better knowing that the feeling of kinship is mutual, but it makes Jongin feel awful. If he hadn’t broken into the aquarium that night, Chanyeol would still be living his separate life, happily eating his shimmery snacks without a care for what went on beyond his walls.

“Are you going back to the city?” Chanyeol asks.

Jongin shrugs. Telling Chanyeol stories about the city and watching his eyes light up had made the memories seem like fond ones. Chanyeol wants to hear about highways and gas stations and light pollution every single night, bedtime stories for a fairytale being, and Jongin thinks he might go back, just to see if the lights on the bridge above the water shine for him the same way Chanyeol’s skin does.

“Jongin?”

He looks at Chanyeol’s tail, dipping in and out of the water, the pale translucent fins almost blending into the water at the angle they’re sitting.

“Can you give me a scale?” Jongin asks.

Chanyeol blinks up at him. Within seconds, he’s pulling away and sinking underwater, until only his face is looking up at Jongin from a distance.

“Sorry,” Jongin says, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I just—I’m going to miss you a lot, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol inches closer, staring hard at Jongin.

“It doesn’t have to be a fresh one,” Jongin says. “When I saw the merman on the beach, he had a lot of loose scales, I thought you might have a few somewhere in the tank. Inside your home, maybe.”

He gestures towards the hideout where Chanyeol sleeps.

“I don’t _shed_ scales like a kitten,” Chanyeol splutters, and Jongin resists the urge to tell Chanyeol that kittens don’t have scales. He’d told Chanyeol about the kitten he’d raised as a young child, and wonders now what kind of scaly beast Chanyeol had been imagining in his head.

“Come back here, Chanyeol,” Jongin says. “I’m sorry I asked. It was just a question, I don’t need a scale.”

Chanyeol swims closer, splashing water against rocks where Jongin sits. He curls his tail towards his body, propped up on the shallowest part of the water. Outside the cover of the water, Jongin notices for the first time the curve of Chanyeol’s waist that’s neither skin nor scale, semi-translucent flesh gleaming a blue tinge.

“Which scale do you want?” He asks.

Jongin shakes his head quickly. “I’m not asking you to pluck them off—”

When Chanyeol seems intent on doing so regardless, eyeing a sparkly round scale with interest, Jongin quickly grabs his wrist.

“Where does it hurt the least?”

Chanyeol considers Jongin’s question for a second, then pinches the scale he’s eyeing anyway, and yanks, hard. His face scrunches up with pain, and he drops the scale into Jongin’s palm before fleeing back into the water, shell snapping shut around him.

“Chanyeol,” Jongin says, his heart aching. He rolls the scale between his thumb and forefinger, and it gleams a faint sheen of pink under the light. It’s a lot stronger than the scales he picked up on the sand those weeks ago, and it’s rounder too, perfect.

“Chanyeol, please come out. I didn’t want you to hurt yourself,” Jongin says.

There’s no response from the water.

Jongin waits patiently. After several too-long minutes, Chanyeol drifts out of the shell and back towards Jongin. He climbs onto the rocks, less forceful this time, and rests his cheek against Jongin’s thigh. Jongin cards his hand through Chanyeol’s hair, rubbing a thumb against the barely discernable pointed tips of his ears.

Chanyeol emits a soft noise of contentment.

“You can make it into a necklace or something. You’ll look nice in some jewelry, Jongin,” Chanyeol says.

No one’s ever told Jongin that. No one’s ever given Jongin jewelry, either. He looks down at the scale, and Chanyeol hums thoughtfully, taking Jongin’s hand. Jongin lets him have it; Chanyeol’s hands are soft and cool.

“Do you want to give me a fingernail? Maybe Jongdae can make me a necklace out of it too,” Chanyeol says.

“No,” Jongin says, horrified. He snatches his hand away before Chanyeol can get any ideas.

“Okay,” Chanyeol says glumly. “Well, if you change your mind…”

Jongin sighs, tugging Chanyeol’s head back to his lap. Their time together always seems to end up this way, a mixture of sweetness and bewilderment. Maybe it’s because Chanyeol is a sweet, bewildering creature.

“They don’t grow back, you know,” Chanyeol says, and there it is again. The warm feeling in Jongin’s chest expands. “That’s how you know I really like you.”

“I really like you too,” Jongin says, and to his surprise, Chanyeol blushes a rosy pink. Jongin lets his smile take over his face, and allows Chanyeol to place some cold, drippy corals in Jongin’s hair because he says it’ll look pretty.

☵

Late that night, there’s a knock on his door.

Jongin, in the midst of toweling his hair dry, carefully lines Chanyeol’s scale up beside the lightbulb on his table and stands. He peeks outside the window, towel slipping down to his shoulders.

It’s Yixing and Junmyeon, still fully dressed in the day’s clothes.

Confused, Jongin pulls the door open to let them in. Junmyeon looks completely worn out, and Jongin thinks of the conversation he’d overhead earlier in the afternoon. He wonders if they’re here to issue the warning.

Junmyeon is looking at his desk, where his phone is still sitting in the rice, and Jongin thinks he knows the moment Junmyeon sees Chanyeol’s scale, for his expression darkens further.

“Is everything okay?” Jongin asks, stepping in front of them to cut off Junmyeon’s view.

There aren’t enough chairs in the cabin, and Jongin sits on the edge of his bed, while Junmyeon claims the desk chair and Yixing takes a seat in the beanbag. It poofs out beneath him, his relaxed pose belying the tension in the air.

“We were in disagreement over what to tell you,” Yixing begins, “So I’m here to speak while Junmyeon expresses his disapproval. We took a vote this afternoon, split right down the middle.”

Jongin frowns.

“Okay?”

“There’s no easy way to explain this,” Yixing says, leaning forward, a difficult task considering his position. Jongin thinks he should offer to swap places, if the situation is as severe as it sounds, but any thoughts he has are expelled from his brain with Yixing’s next words.

“In a few days from now, you’ll be a merman, Jongin.”

“Sorry, I what?” Jongin says.

He looks over at Junmyeon, waiting for Junmyeon to clarify that Yixing means something different, but phrased it in the peculiar way that he sometimes does. Junmyeon says nothing, lips tightly pressed together.

Turning back to Yixing, Jongin repeats, “I’m going to be what?”

“A merman,” Yixing says. “We’ll be giving you Chanyeol’s tail.”

Jongin feels like he’s been hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Repeatedly.

“I don’t understand.”

“We need to have your legs, you see. We’re not the people running the happy deserted island getaway you signed up for. The original staff of this island are, well,” Yixing looks down, “Their legs are still here. And the rest of them are in the water.”

It takes a very long time for Yixing’s words to sink in, but when they finally do, Jongin jerks away, nearly gagging.

“What do you mean.”

“Simply put, we’re going to need to take your legs, so Chanyeol can come on land. And we don’t want to kill you— you can take his place, his tail. We’ll make sure you heal up and put you back in the ocean. Consider it an exchange. We need Chanyeol to be human, and so you must become a merman.”

Jongin shakes his head rapidly.

“This is insane,” He says. “It’s not that simple. You’ll kill him. Kill us both.”

“The risks are low,” Yixing says. “I’ve had plenty of practice.”

“I’m going to leave now,” Jongin says, backing against the wall. The towel slips off his shoulder as he tries to escape, and he drags his duvet with him, keeping his legs covered like the thin layer of extra protection will prevent Yixing from getting to him.

Yixing moves away, letting Jongin scamper across the room.

“See, this is why the vote was split.” Yixing sighs. “I voted yes, that we should tell you. The other humans weren’t so lucky. They woke up in the water with no idea what had happened to them, terrified and in pain. You’re a nice person. You don’t deserve that.”

Jongin knows this must be a nightmare.

“You can’t just stitch a tail onto me and expect me to become a merman,” Jongin says. “I can’t breathe underwater. I can’t swim as well as Chanyeol does. I won’t be able to speak, communicate, adapt—”

“Shh,” Yixing says. “Please calm down, Jongin. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Junmyeon finally breaks his silence.

“We only allowed Yixing to tell you because we’re all in agreement on this, at least. You’re a good person, and you’ll be able to make it in the water. We’ll help you in the time we have left, and take you out in Jongdae’s boat to a good colony. We’ll look after you, Jongin.”

“Can’t you keep me in the tank?” Jongin asks, his voice barely above a whisper. He doesn’t know what he’s asking. He’s gone as mad as the rest of them.

A sad shake of the head.

“We’re leaving the island. Three months ago, we got the notice saying that they were reclaiming the island. Twelve islands within the hundred-mile radius. They’re going to build something new, like a hotel or a resort. Your application came in three days later.” Junmyeon eyes Jongin, with his back against the wall and duvet held protectively in front of him.

“You were the perfect fit for Chanyeol.”

Yixing finally gets up from his beanbag. Jongin wants to run, but his legs feel incapable of supporting his weight. In a few days, they never will again.

“We’re sorry, we truly are,” Yixing says. “It took such a long time to get everyone matched up, because we let a lot of good people go. You’re a good person, but we’re out of time. It has to be you.”

“Please,” Jongin whispers. “Please don’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Junmyeon says. “You’re supposed to be Chanyeol’s legs, and our ride out is in two weeks. We don’t have time to secure another pair.”

Another pair. They’re talking about human legs as though a pair of expensive trousers they picked up downtown.

Jongin’s mouth feels thick, filled with cotton.

In a weird way, it all starts to makes sense. The way Sehun wanted a wooden catalogue of every fish on the island, the way Baekhyun hadn’t tried at all with the flowers, the way Jongdae stopped building things and started picking pears again like it was the beginning.

It wasn’t the beginning; it was the end.

And Jongin is their last ticket out.

“Do you see now?” Yixing asks. “You should get some rest.”

Yixing looks like he wants to give Jongin a hug, but thinks better of it. They let themselves out, bidding him goodnight like he has any chance of one after what they just told him.

Jongin stands by the door, shuddering as he looks out into the darkness. Disgust coils in his stomach, climbing up to his throat, and his eyes are burning hot. The outside world blurs before his eyes. Instinct tells him to run, but the more logical part of Jongin’s brain knows that he has nowhere to go.

He stumbles to his desk, collapsing into his chair and picking his phone out of the rice with shaking fingers.

“Please, please, please…” He begs, but the screen remains blank. He lets it fall from his grip.

A shiny glint catches his eye. It’s Chanyeol’s scale. It’s been less than an hour since Jongin received it and held it close like he was the happiest person alive. Now he’s going to get the entire tail. He swipes his hand across the desk, sending all of Chanyeol’s gifts flying. The lightbulb shatters when it hits the ground.

There’s another knock on the door, and Jongin picks up his lamp, swinging it in front of him. The door is pushed open. Jongin broke his lock a few weeks ago and hadn't cared to fix it. He never locked his door here, not on this island.

It’s supposed to be safe.

Baekhyun steps into the cabin. He’s wearing his pajamas, and he steps forward to wrap Jongin in a tight hug. Jongin fights against it, struggling to hit Baekhyun with the lamp, but Baekhyun makes a soft, soothing noise, holding Jongin close. Jongin lets the lamp fall from his grip, and buries his face in Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“I saw Junmyeon and Yixing leave,” Baekhyun says. “Please don’t cry, Jongin.”

Despite the knowledge that Baekhyun is one of them, that Baekhyun has hurt a person and will hurt again, Jongin crumbles into Baekhyun’s warm arms. His brain is fuzzy, and he allows Baekhyun to clean the glass shards off the floor and tuck him into bed.

“Please stay,” Jongin says, and his voice cracks.

“They won’t come for you tonight,” Baekhyun promises, his eyes full of sorrow.

Jongin shakes his head, and tugs at Baekhyun’s wrist. Baekhyun nods and turns off the lights, crawling into bed with Jongin afterwards.

It takes a long time for either of them to fall asleep, but eventually Baekhyun’s breathing evens out. For the first time in weeks, Jongin hears a far-off melody breeze through the air. He turns over, trying to block out the sound with his pillow.

It doesn’t work.

And this time, when he dreams about the ocean, there’s a face to the warm voice that’s luring him into the sea.

☵

In the morning, Baekhyun is still there. Jongin’s sleep was haunted, and he sits in bed looking out the window, unmoving, feeling like a shell of a person.

Minseok lets himself in an hour later. He looks mildly surprised to see Baekhyun, but quietly lays out the breakfast items across Jongin’s table without saying a word, and leaves as silently as he entered.

When Baekhyun wakes, they eat together at the table. Jongin pushes food around his plate, Minseok’s pastries tasting like sawdust in his mouth.

Baekhyun leaves after lunch.

“You should come outside,” He says, even though it sounds like he knows Jongin won’t.

And Jongin doesn’t. He sits in his cabin all day, turning his broken phone around in his hands.

At dinner, there’s a knock on the door and the scuffle of someone tripping over the welcome mat. Something is placed on the doorstep, and the sound of footsteps fade into the distance.

It’s a basket of all Jongin’s favourite foods. He eats sitting on the floor, chin pressed to his knees. At the bottom of the final Tupperware, there’s a handwritten note from Junmyeon reminding Jongin that he’s welcome to come outside whenever he wants to. They’ll teach him things about merfolk and the ocean that they’ve never taught anyone, and that it’s best if Jongin tries to learn when he’s feeling better.

Jongin creeps out long after the island has gone quiet, six-legged beetles and luminescent butterflies his only witnesses. He walks past Jongdae’s boat, thinking he should run away in it, but he ends up just staring, the grass rustling around his feet in the night wind.

He goes to the aquarium and the door is locked, so he paces the sand until morning, ankle-deep in the cold water with his head full of shadows, no longer sure he can distinguish the difference between nightmares and reality.

☵

Sehun is reading a book outside Jongin’s cabin when he finally emerges the next evening, the sun already setting a deep red in the horizon. Jongin hadn’t realized how barren his room was until he had to sit in it all day.

“Are you watching me?” Jongin asks. His voice is hoarse from disuse.

Sehun shakes his head. “Chanyeol wanted me to tell you to visit. I was waiting to see if you’d come out for dinner.”

“Maybe.” The sheer thought of seeing Chanyeol stings. “Do you want to eat with me?”

“I’m not going to help you escape.”

“I’m not trying to leave. I’d like the company,” Jongin says. He’ll look around the island later, and see what options he has. But for now, he just wants to feel better.

Sehun agrees, and they make camp on the farthest side of the island. He goes to collect some materials for the fire, while Jongin sits with his fishing rod and looks at the blood-red water.

He’s unfairly angry at every sparkling fish he catches, flinging them back into the sea. By the time Sehun returns, Jongin has a bucket full of plain bass.

The weather’s starting to get cold, and they leave the fire burning while they eat. Sehun doesn’t bring up any of the things on Jongin’s mind, and the tightness in Jongin’s shoulders gradually ease.

He doesn’t think he has much of an appetite, but Sehun’s surprisingly good at cooking outdoors. He ends up eating several of the foil-wrapped fishes, the oil sticky on his fingers afterwards.

Jongin finds that he keeps staring at Sehun’s legs as he moves. Even knowing what he does, it’s hard to think Sehun isn’t a perfect fit for his body. His legs stand and crouch and bend with a graceful ease that Jongin only picked up after years of practice. He wonders if Sehun, like Baekhyun, has a scar on his thigh.

“Do you like having legs?” Jongin asks.

Sehun blinks at him, the heat of the fire and the dusky sky making his features blurred at the edges.

“I do,” Sehun says.

“More than having a tail?”

Sehun shakes his head. “It’s different. I loved my tail, too.”

Jongin rests his head in his folded arms across his knees. “I don’t understand. Why couldn’t you have stayed in the water? Did you guys see a human and think ‘hey, I want to try a pair of legs?’ Is it that easy?”

“It isn’t easy,” Sehun says. “I know that you’re people too.”

Jongin laughs. He’s never considered himself anything but.

“It’s easier for me because I never met my human,” Sehun says. “Junmyeon has pictures, I think. I never asked to see them.”

“Jongdae met his human too. Once we were sure we were going to take his legs, Jongdae wanted to meet him and learn more about him. Jongdae’s human was nice until he found out. And then he wasn’t.”

Jongin thinks of all the times Chanyeol’s called him _his_ human. It no longer has the ring to it that it did before.

“Do you keep track of them once they’re in the water?” Jongin asks. His throat feels achy, and the bottles of juice Sehun brought them are lying in the sand. Jongin reaches for one and takes a sip, but the cool barely soothes his throat.

“Some of them try to come back to the island. I wasn’t here when it was happening, but they say Minseok’s… he came by a lot. I guess he never got used to the water. He’d climb up onto the rocks at night and cry. Uh, it scared a lot of the other visitors.”

“Did they kill him?”

Sehun shrugs. “After awhile, he stopped coming back.”

Jongin thinks of the merman he had seen washed up on shore. The cracked skin and empty patches where scales had flaked off. “The mermaid on the beach the other day— was he one of yours?”

“That was Baekhyun’s tail.”

Jongin turns his head to look at Sehun, shocked.

“Baekhyun had a stunning tail, once upon a time. What you saw wasn’t anywhere close to what it used to look like. I don’t know what that human did to himself, but I wish he hadn’t come back.” Sehun stares into the sand, hands clenched into fists.

Jongin’s throat constricts. Baekhyun’s pale face from that day comes back to him, struggling for all he was worth to wrench his arm free from the net.

“I guess it feels like we’re forcing these unwanted gifts onto you but… Chanyeol’s tail is beautiful, even by our standards. I hope you’ll find happiness with it, Jongin.”

Jongin presses his palm against his eyes. His head is throbbing.

“Do you miss your tail?” Jongin asks.

“Sometimes. It’s been over a year,” Sehun answers. “But my family is here now, and every second of missing it is worth it.”

☵

Despite his reservations, Jongin walks with Sehun to the aquarium after the sun has fully set. Sehun follows him into the building, and clears his throat awkwardly when Jongin tells him to leave.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” Jongin says. “How could I? He’s protected by six-inches of glass and can probably snap me like a twig without straining a muscle. Humans are fragile, after all.”

Sehun grimaces.

Chanyeol emerges from the corals. He climbs out of the water and onto the rocky overhang. “Sehun, you can go. Thank you for bringing Jongin here.”

The silence is terse as Sehun takes his leave. They listen to his footsteps echo down the narrow hallway until the door slams behind him.

“If you called me here to apologize, save it,” Jongin says.

“Come up here, Jongin.”

“No, thanks. I hear you’re moving to the city as soon as you get your legs,” Jongin says. “Do you even know what it’s like there? What if you hate it? Are you going to come back here, fish up a mermaid, and reverse the process?”

Chanyeol shakes his head vehemently. “This isn’t a whim, Jongin. The ocean… it’s… suffocating. It’s not just the pollution. It became dangerous for us, too dangerous. Not many merfolk are as kind as we are.”

“I don’t think you’re very kind,” Jongin says acidly.

Chanyeol flicks his tail, and he dives back into the water, the movement accompanied by a loud splash. He looks hurt, but he lingers at the water’s surface, not hiding in his shell like Jongin knows he must want to.

“You aren’t helpless,” Jongin says. “I don’t understand how anything could make you come on land, ruining lives and taking whatever you want just to do so. You _belong_ in the water, Chanyeol. It’s your home. You think the city is safer for you? You don’t even know what it’s like.”

“I understand your concern,” Chanyeol says. “But anywhere would be better than the water. We couldn’t live in the sea any longer.”

Jongin rests his head against the glass, squeezing his eyes shut so he’ll no longer have to look at the conviction in Chanyeol’s gaze.

“That’s funny,” he says, without a trace of mirth in his voice. “That’s what I used to say about the city.”

The heavy silence hangs in the air between them, on different sides of the glass and the world. The steady drip of water is the only thing keeping Jongin grounded.

“Come inside, Jongin. I want to talk,” Chanyeol says.

“No,” Jongin repeats, but he makes no move to leave.

For a very long time, they stand with the clear layer of glass between them, staring at one another. Finally, Jongin turns his back on Chanyeol and heads out the door.

When he gets home, out of habit, he lies in bed and absently toggles the start button of his phone, spinning the phone around like a comforting weight. After several false starts, the logo gleams on screen and Jongin drops the phone onto his face.

His pillow is illuminated by the sudden light in the darkness, and the buzz of notifications keep coming, one after another. Jongin reaches for his phone and turns the brightness down, scrolling through the long list of messages Kyungsoo had sent him.

The last one reads ‘surely there’s a phone you could have borrowed to tell me instead of sending me a postcard that took a week to arrive, istg kim jongin if you go missing on me one more time, i’ll fly to your island myself and give you a piece of my mind.’

Jongin spends over thirty minutes typing and re-typing his reply, finally hitting send and ducking under the covers, closing his eyes.

Knowing that he’ll be able to make his great escape doesn’t bring the relief that Jongin thought it would. It doesn’t change the fact that the best few weeks of his life is coming to an end on a bitter tone, and Jongin can’t stop worrying about the chaos that he’ll leave behind once he’s gone.

More than anything, what scares him is how he wants to give Chanyeol everything he wants, even if it costs all there is of Jongin himself.

_‘sorry, kyungsoo. everything’s fine. i think my phone is working again, i’ll talk to you soon.’_

☵

Over the next few days, Jongin manages to get a date out of Yixing. Without spooking Kyungsoo, Jongin tracks down the numbers of the coastal guards in the area, downloads several maps of the islands around his location, and sends Kyungsoo his coordinates ‘by complete accident.’

He starts going outside again, sitting down with the others as they teach him about edible fish and tribes and the basics of deep-sea culture. They take turns holding lessons for Jongin out on the grass, setting up enough chairs and desks for a small classroom even though the student count is one.

At any other time, Jongin would be enthralled to receive the first-hand knowledge, assisted by the admittedly ugly illustrations that Baekhyun and Sehun draw on the whiteboard. He absorbs as much as he can, taking notes in a sketchbook that Jongdae reminds him he won’t be able to bring underwater with him, but every other minute, his mind drifts off to think about Chanyeol.

Chanyeol, who he’ll never see again.

Chanyeol, whose life he’s about to ruin.

Going against every remaining shred of self-preservation he has left, after classes let out for the day, Jongin heads to the aquarium one last time. Minseok is pacing the perimeter of the building, and he shoots Jongin a warning look, but says nothing.

This time, the door opens when Jongin turns the handle.

He expects to see Chanyeol napping, but he’s swimming circles in the tank. Jongin watches him for several minutes, wanting to keep the image of Chanyeol with him forever.

Finally, Jongin steps forward and knocks lightly on the glass to get his attention.

“Can we have one last memory together? A good one?” Jongin asks sincerely.

Chanyeol doesn’t respond, and Jongin realizes he’s never seen Chanyeol like this, his normally relaxed, drooping tail now flared out around him. He looks at something in the darkness around Jongin, and swims away from the glass.

Then quietly, he says, “Come inside, Jongin.”

☵

The problem is, Chanyeol thinks he’s going to kill Jongin, and Jongin knows the opposite is true. There’s awkward tension in the air, and Chanyeol doesn’t want to talk. He stays in the middle of the tank, floating on the surface of the water, not looking over when Jongin scales the catwalk and lets himself into the room.

Not for the first time, Jongin thinks of his phone and all the photographs in it of the city— he thinks Chanyeol would love to see them, ask all sorts of questions. He’d always been curious about Jongin’s life.

Maybe because he thought he was going to get to live it.

“Chanyeol? Won’t you come talk to me?”

Chanyeol shakes his head minutely. Even his tail barely twitches, the twin ribbon fins bobbing in the gentle water.

Taking a deep breath, Jongin strips off his shirt and places it onto the closest rock. He sees Chanyeol watching him out of the corner of his eyes, and braces himself as he submerges the lower half of his body into the cold water.

Chanyeol turns over, eyes-wide as Jongin paddles over to Chanyeol and reaches for his hand. Chanyeol allows Jongin to take it, inhaling shakily.

 _‘It’s going to be okay,’_ Jongin wants to say, but knows it isn’t true.

Chanyeol’s smooth tail brushes against Jongin’s knee as they float in the tank hand-in-hand, staring at the lights in the ceiling. There’s a heavy sort of beauty in the moment, like a modern retelling of a classic mermaid’s tale, where the prince wasn’t a prince at all.

Jongin wonders why fairytales never have happy endings.

☵

The fingers on Jongin’s hands are frozen stiff by the time Chanyeol lets go. He nudges Jongin towards the shore, making sure Jongin’s hoisted himself onto land before diving underwater.

There are towels in the back room, and Jongin slips out to retrieve them, warming himself up. By the time he returns to the enclosure Chanyeol is waiting for him, bobbing up and down in the water with his face turned towards the door.

Jongin moves to sit close to Chanyeol, putting his mostly-dry shirt back on. The sodden towel slaps against the rock wetly when Jongin lays it down.

“You know, Junmyeon was the first one of us to turn,” Chanyeol says. “He fell in love with a human here on this very island.”

Jongin stops trying to make himself comfortable on the damp floor and looks up.

“Junmyeon met a human too?”

“He was the first of us who did. They never spoke, but Junmyeon watched him from afar every evening. He said the human had a beautiful singing voice, and when he danced, it was mesmerizing.”

Chanyeol’s cold fingers brushes against Jongin’s bare knee.

“Do you dance?”

Jongin hesitates. “I used to.”

“Please show me? Soon you won’t get to do it again.”

Jongin sighs. “That’s very rude, don’t say that. The last dance I learned was the waltz.”

“What’s that?” Chanyeol asks with interest. His tongue tried out the word, clumsy. “We don’t have a word like that in our language.”

“Show me,” Chanyeol says, and Jongin thinks of refusing, but doesn’t. He’d meant it when he said he wanted them to have one final good memory together.

Pushing to his feet, he took a few steps away from the water, holding his arms apart as he tried to remember the elegant pose his dance partner had drilled into him all those years ago, warning him that she wouldn’t hesitate to step on every last one of his toes if he didn’t do well.

“I was told to imagine a box on the floor,” Jongin explains, using his left foot to trace out the imaginary square on the stone. “I would stand with my partner’s hand held here, and the other—”

Jongin pauses, unable to stand the lack of music and the sheer ridiculousness he feels. He turns to find Chanyeol resting his upper body against the shallow rocks, giving Jongin his undivided attention. “This is embarrassing,” he complains. “I can’t just dance with you sitting there watching, I need a partner, anyway.”

“Then go out and call Minseok in, I’m sure he’ll entertain you,” Chanyeol suggests.

Jongin sighs and looks at his feet. He can only vaguely recall the rhythm of the dance, and it’s been so long since he’s done it that it takes another few attempts before his moves bear any resemblance to the waltz. His partner would be appalled. Jongin looks over at Chanyeol again.

“Are you going to just lie there?”

Chanyeol gives him a surprisingly honest grin, letting his tail flutter out behind him, iridescent fin sparkling against the water’s surface. “I’d offer to be your partner, but you’re still wearing my legs.”

Jongin chokes and drops his poised arms to his side, whirling around to fully look at Chanyeol.

“Too soon?” Chanyeol asks.

Jongin lobs a shell at him.

When Chanyeol ducks underwater, laughing, he drenches the floor with water, soaking Jongin’s toes once more. Slow-dancing barefoot in a mermaid enclosure was not one of the things Jongin imagined doing when he first signed up for this package months ago.

Chanyeol makes a loop of the aquarium, the ruffled fins on the side of his tail shimmering even deep in the water. His tail is beautiful, it’s an undeniable fact.

He watches as Chanyeol twirls once, twice, the ribbons of his tail gently floating behind him, before he shoots up to where Jongin is standing. When Chanyeol surfaces again, he looks at Jongin, cocking his head to the side.

“What are you thinking about?” He asks. “You’re staring.”

“You’re going to miss swimming,” Jongin says truthfully. Not to hurt. It is what it is. Jongin’s going to miss walking, and he’s probably going to drown within the first twenty-four hours, and Chanyeol’s going to miss swimming.

Chanyeol falters.

“I thought we were going to make good memories,” he protests.

“Not if you keep throwing quips like that we aren’t,” Jongin says. “Come closer.”

Jongin settles down on the stone slab closest to where Chanyeol is. Every flat surface in the enclosure is wet by now, and he doesn’t really have a choice if he wants to sit.

“Tell me more about Junmyeon and his human,” Jongin says.

Chanyeol pouts, but allows Jongin to sit back down. He doesn’t retreat into the water.

“You can’t mention it to him,” Chanyeol says sternly, meeting Jongin’s eyes. “It’s been three years since it happened.”

Jongin promises. For a moment, all Jongin can hear is the faint dripping coming from the filtration system.

“Some merfolk migrate, sometimes even yearly, but we never had. Not until the king found out about Junmyeon’s human. The king was his father, and he was furious. Without any warning, he announced that we were moving,” Chanyeol says. “The shoal swam for days without knowing what was going on, why we had to leave the only home we’d known.”

Chanyeol sighs quietly. He pillows his head with his arms, staring blankly at Jongin. Jongin gets the feeling he isn’t looking at anything in particular, too caught up in the memory.

“It was hard to build a new kingdom, but the ones who wanted to stay with the shoal had to do so without question. I—” Chanyeol’s voice stutters. “I was separated from my family during the move. I never saw them again.”

Instinctively, Jongin shifts to the edge of his stone slab so he can reach Chanyeol’s hand. He takes it in his, sliding off the rock to sit with his legs in the water.

Chanyeol drifts closer to Jongin, holding Jongin’s hand in his.

“Junmyeon noticed me struggling, and the royal family took me in. I didn’t realize what was happening, but I was just happy I wasn’t kicked out. Junmyeon talked to me, Yixing and Minseok, but he didn’t talk to anyone else. He barely talked to his own family. The king’s decision was cruel, and we lost one-third of the shoal during winter.”

“The king blamed Junmyeon, even though no one knew what was happening behind closed doors. Junmyeon bore the guilt on his own, and I finally learned what had happened one night, when he couldn’t hold it in any longer. At the end of winter, we moved back to our original kingdom, the damage done.”

A distant beam of light flickers through the glass. Perhaps it’s Minseok, making his rounds. Chanyeol’s eyes are glassy. He dips his head into the water for a second, so Jongin can’t see his tears.

“I want you to know that Junmyeon tried to stay away. But he was essentially cut off from his own community, and up here on land, even if it was lonely, his human seemed happy, sometimes. A month after moving back, Junmyeon surfaced, just once, to watch. To make sure that his human was still happy. But he was spotted leaving his shell after nightfall.”

“Yixing was a doctor-in-training,” Chanyeol says. “He argued with the king, saying it was impossible, that Junmyeon would die without care, and that it was cruel even as a punishment for the most wicked crime.”

Chanyeol buries his hands in his face, and the door to the enclosure creaks open. It’s Minseok.

“Is everything okay?” He asks.

Jongin, unsure what to answer, shakes his head mutely.

Minseok’s face pales, and he skids into the room, placing a hand on Chanyeol’s back. “What’s going on? Are you hurt? Did Jongin hurt you?”

Chanyeol shakes his head jerkily.

“I was telling Jongin about how it began,” he says. “About Junmyeon.”

Minseok sinks to his knees, flashlight clattering against the floor. “Chanyeol.”

“He deserves to know. I wanted to tell him.”

“I understand,” Jongin says quietly. “You don’t have to say anymore.”

“It isn’t over,” Chanyeol says, finally lifting his head. Minseok wraps an arm around him. “They took Junmyeon’s human that same night, after Junmyeon had returned and gone to bed. The next time Junmyeon woke up, he was lying in a cabin, with his tail gone and two new legs. Yixing was with him. He insisted on being turned too, so he could look after his prince. Minseok and I were alone.”

“And a few weeks later, I left you,” Minseok says softly. He traces his hand down the side of Chanyeol’s arm.

“We barely knew each other then,” Chanyeol says. “It’s funny, isn’t it? I hardly remember what Minseok’s tail looked like. To me, it’s almost as if he always had legs.” Chanyeol’s own tail flicks upwards lightly, and Chanyeol glances down at it, as though trying to sear the image into his memory.

“It took many months, but I finally left the shoal. I don’t remember what I did while I stayed. I worked, slept, and ate, and I remember none of it. Eventually, I told the king I wanted to look for my family; he didn’t care. He let me go. I swam in circles for a year, without finding anyone. So I came back.”

Jongin swallows, not wanting to interrupt. Chanyeol looks over at Minseok, as if weighing what to say next.

“I meant to return to the shoal, but I surfaced one evening, and I heard their voices across the water.”

“We were celebrating a new resident’s arrival,” Minseok tells Jongin. He’d backed away from the deep water, and was crouched beside Chanyeol, still absently stroking his arm. “Baekhyun’s human. We stayed up late into the night, talking and partying, without realizing that Chanyeol was watching us.”

“Maybe I stayed out of the water for too long, or I fell asleep. Sehun and Jongdae found me on the beach the next morning. They were about to throw me back into the sea, but Yixing recognized me in time. And now, here I am.”

Chanyeol throws his arms out, a ‘ta-daa’ gesture. The saltwater scent of the room, that Jongin had long since gotten accustomed to, leaves a foul taste in his mouth. Chanyeol isn’t looking at him; he’s staring at Minseok.

“I’m sorry, Jongin. I know telling you a sad story isn’t going to make up for what I’m going to do to you,” Chanyeol says.

He lets go of Jongin’s hand, and Jongin startles, having forgotten that he was holding it. Chanyeol pulls himself out of the water, and Jongin feels the soft press of warm lips against his cheek.

All too soon, it’s gone, and Jongin is sitting at the edge of the water, feeling like he’d just plunged headfirst into it.

“It was nice knowing you, but I don’t want to talk to you any more. Take him home, Minseok.” Chanyeol drops into the water and vanishes into the reefs, the ripples masking any chance of telling where he’d gone.

Minseok picks up his flashlight. His face is tight.

“Let’s go,” He says.

They don’t talk on their way back to Jongin’s cabin. Jongin doesn’t mind. His head is swimming with information, and his heart feels heavy. His cheek burns from Chanyeol’s kiss.

As far as last meetings go, Jongin couldn’t have asked for a better, or worse one.

The grass is crunchy beneath his feet, and the crickets are in full chorus this late at night. His clothes and shoes are soaking wet, but he barely feels a thing until Minseok wraps his jacket around him, and suddenly he’s shivering and can’t stop.

“Chanyeol shouldn’t have told you any of that,” Minseok says.

Jongin shakes his head.

They’re nearing the path towards Jongin’s home, and Jongin sees the lights inside Baekhyun’s house still turned on. He thinks he can hear Jongdae’s distinct laugh.

Minseok keeps trudging on, so Jongin follows him. He fumbles for his key with shaking fingers, and finally opens the lock.

Home sweet home. For one last night.

“Will you be okay?” Minseok asks. “Do you want me to stay?”

“No, I’ll be fine. I’m going to take a hot shower and go straight to bed. Goodnight, Minseok.”

The shower takes far too long, Jongin letting the water sting his open eyes. He toes at the tiles on the floor, and when he finally collapses into bed, it’s as if the exhaustion he’s carried with him all day sits heavily on his chest, not letting up.

He picks up his phone from under his pillow, looking at the number he has to call for an immediate rescue. Kyungsoo’s sent him a couple of messages, in the psychic way only a best friend is, checking up on him.

Jongin closes both windows and opens his browser instead. The reception is atrocious on the island, but the tiny bar of signal does its best. Jongin types in the keyword and clicks search, watching as the pages and information slowly load before his eyes. After an hour, he takes his first screenshot and sends it to Kyungsoo with a message attached.

It’s only the beginning; he doesn’t stop scrolling until the early morning.

Two hours after he’s fallen asleep, the front door of Jongin’s cabin bursts open, slamming hard against the wall. Jongin sits up blearily, clutching his pillow to his chest. He feels like he hasn’t slept a wink, and in his half-asleep panic, he’s suddenly terrified that he’s misjudged the date of his operation.

The exhaustion-induced nightmare melts off him the moment he sees Junmyeon’s pale face.

“Did you do it?” Junmyeon asks.

“Do what?”

“Chanyeol is gone.”

☵

Sehun had woken up to a light drizzle, and gone into Chanyeol’s tank to shut the hatch in the sunroof that he sometimes liked to keep open in the night. Nothing had been amiss, all the creatures in the tank minding their business like usual, and it hadn’t been unusual for Chanyeol to still be asleep, out of sight.

It was when he was leaving that he saw the message taped to the back of the door.

“He left,” Junmyeon says, his voice shaking.

“You were the last person to see him yesterday. What did you say to him?” Jongdae asks, looking over at Jongin. He’s tucked close to Baekhyun, the both of them squeezed together on the beanbag.

Jongin glances over at Minseok, stomach lurching. They must have been the only ones to have seen him before Chanyeol vanished.

“He wrote to us, telling us to let you go,” Junmyeon says, and Jongin notices that his face has dried tear-tracks on it.

“He couldn’t have gotten out by himself,” Yixing says. “Jongin, just tell us where he is. Please.”

“I didn’t move him!” Jongin shouts. His skin feels sticky despite the chilly morning breeze. If he hadn’t done it, someone else must have. He scans the faces of the others, but everyone looks equally shocked, eyes wide and red-rimmed.

“Was it one of us?” Sehun says, slowly catching on. “Did someone—”

“That isn’t important right now,” Minseok interrupts. “Someone keep an eye on Jongin. Jongdae, we’re going to take your boat out, we have to find him.”

Jongdae nods, and light pours into the cabin as the door opens.

Jongin’s left alone with Yixing. He goes to the bathroom and shuts the door behind him, leaning back against the wood and closing his eyes. Chanyeol is gone. Just when Jongin might have found a way out for both of them.

He needs to talk to Kyungsoo, he needs—

A low buzzing reverberates through the closed door, and Jongin’s stomach pitches to the floor. He swings the door open again, but the phone is in Yixing’s hand, Yixing staring down at it with an unreadable look.

Jongin holds out a shaking hand. “Please, give it to me, Yixing. I need to answer that call.”

“You know I can’t let you do that.”

Jongin watches as Kyungsoo’s picture lights up the screen for several long, painful seconds. Yixing makes no move to destroy the phone, for which Jongin is at least grateful. Finally, the buzzing stops.

“I’ll be keeping this with me for a little while,” Yixing says. “Get dressed and I’ll meet you outside.”

Jongin’s heart sinks as Yixing leaves the cabin with his phone in tow. He races for the door and catches it before it fully closes.

“Did you mean it when you said you were sorry? That you’re only doing this to me because you have no choice?” Jongin asks Yixing.

“Where I come from,” Jongin says carefully, “There are surgeries for prosthetics.”

“Prosthetics?” Yixing repeats.

“Artificial limbs. I looked into a few clinics last night, and one of them was a little more sci-fi than the usual. Uh… do you think Chanyeol would like to be half-robot instead of half-fish? I told my friend to call them with some questions. They might be able to give Chanyeol the legs he needs.”

Jongin’s heart is running a mile a minute and bites his bottom lip between his teeth to stop himself from rambling. He takes a deep breath and gestures for his phone. Yixing takes it out of his pocket, unwilling to hand it over.

Jongin shows Yixing how to unlock it and access the messages he sent to Kyungsoo, and at first Yixing reads through the texts suspiciously, afraid that Jongin has called for help. But Jongin sees the moment that Yixing reads the links and screenshots that Jongin sent to Kyungsoo early that morning, for his entire expression changes.

“This is real?” He says in disbelief. There’s apprehension written all over his face, but Jongin can read past it and see the shuttered hope. “People can do this in the city?”

“It’s fairly new technology. It’s not common, but I think they’ll be able to do it for Chanyeol,” Jongin says carefully. He doesn’t want to get their hopes up. But Kyungsoo is good at what he does, and if there’s a surgeon they can trust in the city, Kyungsoo will find him.

On shore, Baekhyun is calling for Yixing, waving a hand above his head.

“We’re putting this conversation on hold,” Yixing says, poking Jongin in the chest. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

He takes Jongin’s phone with him when he leaves.

☵

Jongdae, Sehun and Minseok go out in the boat. It’s barely finished, still rough at the edges, but it floats, and that’s all any of them care about.

Even from a distance, Jongin can hear their voices calling for Chanyeol carrying across the water. Chanyeol must surely hear them, and so must every other creature in the vicinity.

Baekhyun and Junmyeon comb the island, just in case Chanyeol’s hidden close by. Yixing sets up a new fishing spot where the shore crooks out to the sea, and Jongin crouches on the sand beside him. It’s reminiscent of Jongin’s first day on the island, except they’re fishing for a live merman, and Jongin will do anything to make sure the catch doesn’t escape.

When the afternoon sun gets too warm to handle sitting still, Jongin walks along the coast and yells Chanyeol’s name until his voice gives up. He retreats to Yixing’s side once more, hugging his knees to his chest.

By late afternoon, the boat is but a speck in the far-off distance.

Baekhyun comes to sit down beside Jongin, holding a mug with the words ‘vitamin sea!’ on it in shiny blue cursive.

The palm leaves rustle above them in the wind, but the waves out at sea are tranquil. He wishes that it means Chanyeol is safe.

An hour later, Junmyeon joins them on the rocky platform. Yixing asks to speak to him privately, and they walk some distance away, heads bowed together in conversation. Jongin hopes he’s telling Junmyeon about Jongin’s discovery.

Baekhyun falls asleep on the mat waiting for them to return, and Jongin goes back to his cabin and picks up a small throw blanket to cover him with. When Junmyeon sits down beside Jongin, he spares him an appraising glance, but says nothing. Yixing catches two fishes purely by accident, and releases them back in the sea.

By the time the boat cuts back through the water, it’s late, and all of them have missed dinner. Jongin knows, before he can even see them clearly, that Chanyeol isn’t with them.

“I don’t think he wants to be found,” Minseok says. His wet hair is plastered to his forehead, and he looks back towards the ocean.

“Maybe he’ll come back tonight,” Junmyeon says. “We’ve spoiled him here, maybe he’ll come back when he’s hungry.”

None of them believe it.

Jongdae crouches down beside Baekhyun, shaking him awake. Jongin doesn’t catch their hushed conversation. All he can think about is Chanyeol swimming alone in the deep, blue sea.

☵

The day after Chanyeol’s disappearance, Jongin gets his phone back. Junmyeon and Yixing sit in the office with him as he talks to Kyungsoo on speakerphone, their expressions going from mistrustful to hopeful.

Kyungsoo hasn’t found the right person yet, but he confirms everything that Jongin asked for and more.

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo says. “You didn’t explicitly say this, but are we talking about mermaids?”

Yixing slaps his hand over the phone, not knowing how to turn it off.

Kyungsoo’s voice continues, “If you are… I think I found someone who can do exactly what you’re looking for.”

☵

Jongdae upgrades and finishes the boat in record time, fixing a small cabin on board the ship, with tiny bunks and a glass-bottom floor. It’s both functional and ambitious, and Jongin prays that it won’t need to be used.

“I don’t think he’s gone far,” Sehun murmurs to Junmyeon, when he thinks Jongin isn’t listening. “He’ll be around here, waiting to see Jongin off, won’t he?”

But no matter how much Jongin calls for him, Chanyeol never comes.

When Jongin packs his belongings the night before his flight out, he finds that Chanyeol’s scale is gone. He turns the whole cabin inside out looking for it, and sits in the cabin and sobs for the first time all week. Once he starts, he can’t stop.

He cries all through packing his suitcase, and is still crying when Baekhyun knocks on the door and pokes his head in.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He asks, rubbing Jongin’s back. “Don’t cry. We’ll find him. Jongdae and I are making pizza at Minseok’s place, come eat with us tonight, okay? You shouldn’t be alone.”

Jongin tries to wipe his tears away and stifle his sobs. He’s not the only one missing Chanyeol, and the island holds fond memories for all of them. He doesn’t forget the fact that they’ll be forced to leave the island soon, the only home besides the water that they’ve known.

“S-sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Baekhyun says. “Yixing, Minseok and I will find him. I promise. We care about him too.”

Jongin nods. “Please tell him that he doesn’t need to find another human. I’m his,” Jongin says, and to his horror, his eyes are filling with tears once more. “We’ve found a way to give him legs without harming anyone else. Tell him to come back to me. I’m his human.”

“I will,” Baekhyun says, urging Jongin to stand up. Jongdae’s face appears at the cabin window, wondering where Baekhyun has vanished to.

“Come on, let’s go put pineapples on pizza,” Baekhyun says. “I know you miss Chanyeol, but it’s your last night on the island. Let’s party, okay?”

☵

The pilot comes to pick Jongin up early in the morning. He said his goodbyes last night, and only Junmyeon walks him to the boarding ramp, wheeling Jongin’s suitcase out for him. The others had wanted to come too, but it was best if the pilot did not see the excess of people living on the supposedly deserted island.

“You’re an interesting person, Kim Jongin,” Junmyeon says. “Give me your phone number.”

Jongin gives Junmyeon both his and Kyungsoo’s number, just in case, then gives Junmyeon a tight hug.

There are already other people seated when Jongin boards the flight. He wonders what their experiences are like, if they’ve lived through the same adventure that Jongin had, and if their heart breaks the same way when they leave. He doesn’t speak to anyone, and takes the seat by the window of the plane.

The captain recites the passenger announcements through the overhead speakers, and the plane lifts off.

Jongin leans his head against the window of the glass, looking down at the island he loves. He blinks, and his eyes grow hot with unshed tears.

Written in the sand beneath him, in bold letters, are the words _‘Let’s meet again soon.’_

☵

Jongin takes a job at an ice cream shop, unable to focus on anything but soft serve and sprinkles, and tells Kyungsoo that he’s writing a book in his spare time when all he’s doing is nursing his heartbreak, sitting beneath the lighted-up bridge every night like a star-crossed lover or a troll.

He’s sitting at the same spot he always does, pretending to read a book, when someone sits down in the grass beside him. Jongin doesn’t look up until the person clears his throat, and quietly calls his name.

It’s Junmyeon.

Jongin drops the book into the grass, and it slips on the incline, nearly toppling into the water. Junmyeon catches it before it does.

“Junmyeon? How did you find me? What are you doing here?”

He blends into the city well, donning a comfortable cream sweater and black jeans. If Jongin passed him on the street he might not have given him a second glance.

“I thought that was you,”Junmyeon says with a smile. “You’ve been coming here every night for awhile. Waiting for someone?”

☵

Junmyeon takes him to a nearby chain restaurant to eat. He’s settled in with ease, barely fumbling with any of the world around him, and even when he makes mistakes, he brushes it off with endearing sheepishness and is instantly forgiven.

“How long have you been here?”

“Jongdae, Sehun and I arrived a few days after you did,” Junmyeon says.

Jongin’s eyes widen. “You’ve been here a month? Have you—”

“The others are still looking for Chanyeol. It would be easier if they could spend long periods of time underwater, but it is what it is. Whether or not they’ll find him with a tail remains yet to be seen,” Junmyeon says, and Jongin’s stomach churns unpleasantly.

“In his note, he said he would meet us in the city, under the bridge with the lights. I didn’t understand what he meant until we got here. I suppose you’re the one who put the idea into his head?”

“I,” Jongin clears his throat. “Sorry.”

Junmyeon shrugs. “I was the one who helped him escape.”

“Oh.” Jongin doesn’t know what to say or where to begin.

“I know Chanyeol told you about my human,” Junmyeon says. “You reminded me a lot of myself. Back then, if there was a way to have spared him, I would have done it in a heartbeat.”

“Don’t blame yourself for any of it, Jongin. When Chanyeol left, he was happy. He was determined to find his own way through and meet us on this side.”

The waitress comes with the bill, and he rummages through his pockets to pull out his wallet. He gives the bill a cursory glance, and pays with a credit card. Jongin stares at it. They’ve settled in so well. Jongin wishes it could be Chanyeol sitting across from him, here in his world.

“I have something for you,” Junmyeon says, once the waitress is gone. He opens his wallet again, carefully plucking something out of the front pocket. It’s a single, shimmery scale, similar to the one Chanyeol had given him.

“I know you lost yours,” He says, holding it out to Jongin. Jongin’s hand shakes as he extends it towards Junmyeon to receive the gift. “He left a few more— but I can’t give them to you. I miss him too.”

“It’s okay,” Jongin says, voice scratchy as he holds the tiny scale in his palm. “Thank you, Junmyeon.”

“Hang in there, Jongin,” Junmyeon says. “They’ll come back to us soon.”

Later, when Jongin gets home, he sits at his desk, twisting the scale in between his fingers and watching it change color under the pale light of his lamp.

The next morning, he brings it to a jeweler, to see if they can turn the scale into the kind of necklace Chanyeol had wanted for him. The jewelsmith is far too interested in the scale, and Jongin snatches it back, terrified he might lose it.

Forty-three days after Jongin returns to the city, he gets a text message from an unknown number.

“We found him,” it reads. “We’re coming home.”

☵

Jongin claims an emergency at work and hails a cab to the address Junmyeon sends to him. He gets lost in the hallway, his vision spinning a little in his anxiety, and finally finds the right door.

Sehun opens it for him, stepping aside to let Jongin in.

Jongin will look at the place later, admire the size of the apartment and the large window overlooking the city, but in the moment, his gaze completely blurs everything out except for the Jacuzzi-sized tub sitting at the center of the room.

Minseok and Yixing are obscuring half the tub, but they move when they hear Jongin enter, and Jongin sees _him_.

Chanyeol.

His eyes are shut, most of his body submerged beneath the water, his head tilted back and resting against the frame of the tub. There are fresh marks on his arms and torso, like he’s been getting into fights, but the gentle rise and fall of his chest tells Jongin that he’s alive, and Jongin drops to his knees beside the tub.

“It wasn’t easy getting him into the city and to the apartment. We put him to sleep for a little while, but he’ll wake up in a couple of hours,” Yixing explains softly. He pats Jongin’s back, and Jongin realizes that he’s misses him too, missed all of them.

His blinks back tears as he looks around at them, and pushes to his feet to give them all hugs. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Thank you for bringing him here.”

He thumbs at the light purple bruise at Chanyeol’s jaw, and even in deep slumber, Chanyeol turns his face towards the touch.

☵

Doctor Kim is a busy man but agrees to slot Chanyeol in at the end of the second week. His clinic has a mysteriously blank record of patients, but Kyungsoo has done his work and made all the necessary calls. He trusts Doctor Kim, and so Jongin does too.

In the meantime, Chanyeol sits in his tub by the window and looks down at the city, asking so many questions that Jongin can hardly get a word in. Baekhyun and Jongdae tell Chanyeol about their escapades in the park by the river, where people hold concerts and picnics and ride bicycles along the path. They come back late at night carrying funny souvenirs for Chanyeol, like fish-flavoured snacks, a kite, and several cans of mermaid-brand alcohol.

“Is it hard to learn to ride a bicycle?” Chanyeol asks one evening. In the background, Baekhyun is milking his scratched-up knee for all it’s worth, while Jongdae frets with the first-aid kit.

“I learned as a kid, so it was easy for me. But I’ll teach you,” Jongin promises.

He’s driving Chanyeol to the doctor’s clinic tomorrow, and the next time they’re in this apartment, Chanyeol will have two legs of his own. Chanyeol’s hands are shaking when Jongin reaches out to hold them, and he’s all false bravado.

“Will you still like me when I don’t have my tail?” Chanyeol asks.

“Who says I like you now?” Jongin asks, and leans in to kiss him silly.

☵

Jongin never goes back to his office job. Instead, he answers a dodgy ad in a magazine looking for someone to take care of a guesthouse. Kyungsoo gives him a judgmental look before the interview, reminding Jongin where the last shady advertisement he’d applied for had gotten him.

“Chanyeol?” Jongin asks innocently, and Kyungsoo punches him in the arm.

Jongin takes Chanyeol with him to the interview, and they move into the two-story wooden guesthouse a week later. It’s a good job for the both of them; Chanyeol loves talking to the tourists and making them feel at home, and Jongin finds that he’s very happy playing house with Chanyeol all day.

Minseok and Junmyeon both get a nine-to-five job for different companies in the same office building, and the daily routine suits them well. They fill their lives quickly with new friends and experiences, constantly checking in with Jongin to make sure that gyms or coffee shops aren’t secretly cults.

They share an apartment with Yixing, who after several months of training, is accepted into Doctor Kim’s clinic. He discovers, over time, that they aren’t the first merfolk in the city, and they certainly won’t be the last.

Jongdae films a documentary featuring a dozen of the multi-generational eateries in the city, and over the course of the project is adopted into every single one of their families. Every time Jongin calls, he’s embarking on a new project with Baekhyun, the both of them making road-trips across the country that Jongdae documents and Baekhyun snapshots for a shocking number of followers.

And Sehun, who loves the ocean the most among them, gets a job at the local aquarium. When he gives tours, it’s common to find schools of fish trailing after him behind the glass, while the kindergartens following his brightly-colored flag trip over themselves in excitement.

When the weather gets warmer again, they gather to have a barbeque in the garden just like they used to on the island, except this time Kyungsoo is with them. He sits beside Minseok, helping to grill the meat while Sehun keeps accidentally throwing salt over his fingers.

Chanyeol is much better than Baekhyun was at planting flowers, and the apple blossom tree in the yard sheds sweet, fragrant petals down on them as they catch up.

Jongin watches Junmyeon and Jongdae bicker on the other side of the fire and smiles, listening to the rich laughter surrounding him. Someone stomps down the porch and within moments, Chanyeol is flopping onto Jongin’s lap. He smiles up at Jongin, reaching up for the lustrous necklace around his neck to give it a gentle tug.

Jongin thinks about the advertisement for paradise he’d picked up a year ago, thinking he would never come back to the city, but here he is, and his life is fuller than he could have ever imagined it being. He swoops down to kiss Chanyeol, who props himself up without breaking the kiss, and throws his legs across Jongin’s lap.

Maybe paradise wasn’t so far from the truth after all.


End file.
